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PRESENT  CHURCH  BUILDING,  CORNER  MADISON  STREET 
AND  PARK  AVENUE 


A  BRIEF  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

First  Presbyterian  Church 

OF  BALTIMORE 


Compiled  under  direction  of  its  Session 
and  Committee  for  Publication  on  its 
One  Hundred  and    Fiftieth  Anniversary 


BY 

WILLIAM  REYNOLDS 

A  Member  of  the  Session 


BALTIMORE 
1913 


COMPOSED  AND  PRINTED  AT  THH 

WA^-ERLY  PRESS 
Bt  THE  Williams  &  Wilkixs  CoMPANr 
Baltimore,  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I.     Dr.  Allison's  Pastorate,  i  763-1802 i 

Beginning  of  Presbyterians  in  Baltimore i 

Call  to  Rev.  Hector  Allison  in  1761  declined  by  Presbytery 3 

Advertisement  of  lottery  to  raise  funds 4 

Call  to  Rev.  Patrick  Allison  in  1763  accepted 7 

Small  log  church  erected  in  December  1763 8 

Committee  elected  February  6,  1764 8 

New  and  larger  building  erected  1765,  completed  1766 10 

Ordination  of  Dr.  Allison,  August  1765 11 

Dr.  Allison  declined  call  to  Pine  Street  Church,  Philadelphia,  1768  11 
Lottery  to  raise  funds  to  build  parsonage,  1771,  and  pay  for  ad- 
dition to  church 11 

Parsonage  completed  in  1781 13 

Burial  ground  Fayette  and  Greene  Streets  purchased  1785 13 

Steps  taken  in  1789  to  erect  a  new  church  edifice  on  same  lot;  com- 
pleted in  1 791 13 

Full  report  by  committee  to  congregation,  1792 14 

Congregation  has  meanwhile  increased  from  8  to  160  families 14 

Scotch-Irish  settlers  in  Baltimore 15 

Characteristics  of  Dr.  Allison 17 

His  writings 18 

Incorporation  of  Committee  in  1795 21 

Failure  of  Dr.  Allison's  health  in  1800 21 

Call  to  Rev.  Archibald  Alexander  as  assistant 21 

Rev.  James  Inglis  elected  as  assistant  pastor  February  1802 24 

Death  of  Dr.  Allison,  August  21,  1802 25 

Chapter  II.    Dr.  Inglis's  Pastorate  1802-1819 26 

Remarkable  increase  in  material  prosperity 26 

Session  organized  and  elders  first  ordained  in  1804 26 

First  judicial  case  before  the  session 27 

Organ  erected  in  i8n  and  the  consequences 28 

Four  additional  elders  ordained  1814 29 

Same  year  prayer  meetings  recommended  by  the  session 29 

Applicants  for  admission  first  appear  before  the  session 29 

iii 


VI  CONTENTS 

May  15,  1815,  Lord's  Supper  celebrated  quarterly 30 

First  Sabbath  school  is  established  in  Baltimore 30 

Judicial  preceding  in  session  against  an  elder  November  181 1 31 

Drinking  customs  of  the  day  among  church  members 32 

Resignation  of  Dr.  Inglis,  December  15,  181 7 32 

Withdrawn  by  unanimous  request  of  Congregation 33 

Election  of  elders  for  one  year,  January  i,  1818 33 

Charges  brought  against  Dr.  Inglis  before   Presbytery   on   May 

12,  1818 34 

Proceeding  thereupon 34 

Death  of  Dr.  Inglis,  August  15,  1819 38 

Characteristics  and  great  eloquence 38 

Chapter  III.    Dr.  Nevins'  Pastorate  1820-1835 41 

Call  and  ordination  of  Dr.  Nevins 41 

Early  3'^ears  of  his  pastorate 41 

Curious  letter  written  by  John  McHenry  to  him 43 

Changes  in  membership  of  the  session 46 

Lecture  room  erected  in  1819 47 

Dr.  Nevins's  intimacy  with  Rev.  Mr.  Summerfield 47 

His  views  on  administration  of  infant  baptism 47 

Dr.  Backus's  narrative  of  great  revival  of  1827 48 

Decline  in  Dr.  Nevins's  health  in  1832 50 

Additional  elders  elected  in  1834 51 

Democratic  convention  held  in  church  in  1835  which  nominated 

Mr.  VanBuren  to  Presidency 51 

Remonstrance  by  session  to  committee  thereupon 51 

Death  of  Dr.  Nevin,  September  14,  1835 51 

His  writings 51 

Chapter  IV.    Dr.  Backus's  Pastorate,  1836-1875 53 

Call  and  installation  of  Rev.  John  C.  Backus,  1836 53 

His  diffidence  in  assuming  the  charge 53 

His  description  of  the  committee  of  that  time 56 

Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  organized  October  31, 

1837,  in  First  Church  lecture  room 60 

Four  additional  elders  elected  in  1 840 51 

Deacons  elected  for  first  time  in  this  church 61 

Building  of  Aisquith   Street    and  Franklin  Street  Churches  and 

colonization  thereto  for  First  Church 61 

New  organ  put  in  and  sexton's  green  armchair  removed 63 


CONTENTS  V 

Grandfather,  son  and  grandson  fill  office  of  sexton  for  over  eighty- 
years  63 

1848,  W.  W.  Spence  and  W.  B.  Canfield  elected  elders 64 

Introduction  of  the  Scottish  plan  of  systematic  benevolence  into 

the  First  Church  and  great  increase  of  revenue  thereupon 65 

Purchase  of  Madison  Street  colored  church 66 

Building  of  Westminister  church  on  burial  ground 67 

Origin  of  Light  Street  church 67 

October  1853  congregation  decides  to  purchase  and  build  upon  the 

site  now  occupied  by  church 67 

September  25,  1859,  last  service  in  old  church 68 

January  9,  1861,  five  elders  and  four  deacons  elected 70 

May  1 86 1,  Dr.  Backus  elected  moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  70 
1863,  Dolphin  Street  Church,   (now  Lafayette  Square    Church) 

organized  from  Mission  school 71 

1S64,  Rev.  Jacob  Weidman  elected  assistant  pastor 72 

1867,  succeeded  by  Rev.  J.  Sparhawk  Jones 72 

1870,  Dr.  Jones  elected  pastor  of  Brown  Memor'al  Church 73 

Succeeded  by  Rev.  Timothy  C.  Darling  as  assistant  pastor 73 

Rev.  George  C,  Yeisly,  assistant  pastor,  1873 72) 

December  1874,  four  deacons  elected 73 

1875,  New  Church  building  spires  completed 73 

May  1875,  Dr.  Backus  resigned  pastorship 73 

Action  of  Congregation  thereon  and  his  election  as  pastor  emeritus  74 
November   i,   1875,  committee  of  eleven  appointed  to  select  a 

pastor  which  did  not  report  until  December  1878 74 

Resignation  of  Mr.  Yeisly  as  assistant  pastor 74 

January   1876,  Mission  school  established  cor.   Gay  and  Chase 

Streets 75 

January  1S78  Mission  removed  to  Faith  Chapel  then  erected  at  cost 

of  $4,000  on  the  old  Glendy  burial  ground 76 

Rev.  John  P.  Campbell  took  charge  of  the  Mission  after  his  ordi- 
nation on  October  1870  as  a  branch  of  the  First  Church  under 

control  of  its  session  until  organized  as  independent  congregation  76 

Chapter  V.     Dr.  Leftwich's  Pastorate,  1879-1893 77 

December   2,    1878,   Report  of  committee  appointed   November 

1875,  recommending  call  of  Rev,  James  T.  Leftwich  D.D 77 

His  election,  call,  acceptance  and  installation 77 

Erection  of  Man.se  completed  March  1881 77 


Vi  CONTENTS 

Elders  elected  i8Si  and  18S3  and  deacons  1883 78 

Faith  Church  completed  November  1884 78 

1883  Musical  Society  of  First  Presbyterian  Church  organized — 

its  history 78 

Death  of  Dr.  Backus,  April  5,  1884 80 

His  character  and  traits  recalled 80 

Session  narrative,  1886 83 

July  1887,  Men's  Association  for  Christian  work  formed 83 

Hope  Mission  founded  by  it 83 

Society  of  Christian  Workers  succeeded  it,  189 1 84 

1888,  A  new  organ  given  to  church  by  Elder  W.  W.  Spence 84 

February  5,  1893,  resignation  of  Dr.  Leftwich 84 

Action  of  the  congregation  thereon 84 

Fund  of  $35,000  raised 85 

Chapter  VI.    Dr.  Witherspoon's  Pastorate,  1894-1897 87 

Dr.  Witherspoon's  election  October   1893,   his  call,    acceptance 

and  installation,  March  6,  1894 87 

All  Members  received  into  full  communion  required  to  make  pub- 
lic profession  before  Congregation 87 

On  May  11,  1894,  Mr.  Andrew  Reid,  one  of  the  committee,  offered 
to  advance  $20,000  for  erection  of  suitable  building  for  work  of 

Hope  Mission 88 

Gift  accepted  and  building  committee  appointed   to    erect    the 
building  known  as  Reid  Memorial  Hope  Mission    completed 

March  31,  1897 88 

February  25,  1897,  Death  of  Rev.  James  T.  Leftwich,  D.D 88 

His  traits  and  characteristics  described 89 

Resignation  of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  October  27,  1897,  to  accept  call 

to  Richmond,  Va 94 

December  15, 1897,  two  additional  elders  elected 94 

January  19,  1898,  committee  appointed  to  select  pastor  to  suc- 
ceed Dr.  Witherspoon 95 

Chapter  VII.    Dr.  Guthrie's  Pastorate,  1899-1910 9^ 

Dr.  Guthrie's  call,  acceptance  and  installation  December  18,  1899.  96 

January  31,  1901,  Our  Church  Work  published 97 

February  9,  1901,  three  elders  and  five  deacons  elected 97 

April  2,  1902,  two  more  elders  and  two  deacons  elected 97 

October  19,  1902,  Rev.  R.  L.  Walton  elected  assistant  pastor  for 

one  year 98 


CONTENTS  VU 

October  29,  1902,  Rev.  John  S.  Conning  elected  minister  in  charge 

of  Reid  Memorial  Hope  Mission 98 

October  3,  1903,  the  session  established  and  took  under  its  care  a 

Presbyterian  Deaconesses'  Home  at  Baltimore 98 

The  work   accomplished   thereby  and   history  of   the  Deaconess 

movement  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 99 

April  28,  1905,  the  Presbyterian  Deaconess  Home  and  Training 

School  incorporated  as  an  independent  organization 104 

April  25,  1904,  congregation  at  Reid   Memorial  organized   as  a 

separate  church  with  Rev.  John  S.  Conning  as  its  pastor 105 

June  I,  1905,  Men's  Society  of  the  First  Church  organized 105 

November  28,  1905,  the  Egenton  Orphan  Asylum  moved  into  its 

new  building  on  Cedar  Avenue 105 

History  of  the  Egenton  Orphan  Asylum  (known  as  the  Egenton 

Home) 105 

December  2,  1906,  individual  communion  cup  first  used iii 

December  12,  1906,  three  additional  elders  elected in 

1907,  monthly  concerts  of  prayer  for  foreign  missions  resumed  at 

Wednesday  evening  service 112 

October  18,  1907,  Paoting-fu  adopted  as  parish  abroad 112 

February  1908,  support  of  Dr.  Charles  Lewis,  Medical  Missionary, 

undertaken  by  Men's  Association 112 

October  1908,  Reid  Memorial  Congregation  dissolved  by  presby- 
tery, and  building  leased  by  the  committee  to  the  Presbyterian 

Deaconess  Home  and  Training  School  April  8,  1909 112 

Formation  of  Reid  Memorial  Guild  for  work  therein 113 

September  26,  1909,  Mr.  Wesley  Baker  engaged  for  one  year  as 

assistant  to  the  minister 113 

April  7,  1910,  Dr.  Guthrie's  resignation 114 

Action  of  the  session,  congregation  and  presbytery  thereon 114 

Chapter  VIII.     Dr.  Barr's  Pastorate  1911- 117 

Dr.  Barr's  call,  acceptance  and  installation 117 

Changes  in  the  congregation  during  31  years 117 

Movement  to  raise  a  permanent  endowment  fund  of  $100,000 

begun  in  1905  and  finally  achieved  in  April,  191 1 118 

Appendix — List  of  Church  Officers. 


A  Brief  History  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Baltimore 

CHAPTER  I 

DR.  Allison's  pastorate  1763-1802 

The  year  1761  may  be  fixed  upon  with  certainty  as  that 
of  the  beginning  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Balti- 
more. Rev.  Dr.  Patrick  AlHson,  its  first  minister,  in  his 
account  of  "The  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Baltimore  Town,"  written  in  1793  begins  as 
follows : 

"The  advantageous  situation  of  the  Town  for  commerce 
induced  a  few  Presbyterian  Famihes  from  Pennsylvania  to 
settle  in  it  about  the  year  1761  who  with,  two  or  three  of 
the  same  Persuasion,  that  had  emigrated  from  Europe,  soon 
formed  themselves  into  a  religious  society,  and  had  occasional 
supphes,  when  they  assembled  in  private  houses,  though  the 
owners  were  hable  to  a  Prosecution  on  this  account,  as  the 
then  Province  groaned  under  an  unrighteous  and  irreligious 
Establishment  for  the  support  of  which  all  Denominations 
were  taxed,  and  the  Law  required  every  house  of  worship, 
used  by  Dissenters  to  be  registered  and  licensed.  They 
proceeded  however  in  this  way  undisturbed,  and  soon  raised 
(in  1763)  a  small  wooden  building  for  the  more  orderly 
celebration  of  Divine  Service." 

Baltimore  Town  was  at  this  time  a  small  place.  The  act 
"for  erecting  a  town  on  the  north  side  of  Patapsco  in  Balti- 


2  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

more  County  and  for  laying  out  into  lots  60  acres  of  land  in 
and  about  the  place  where  Mr.  John  Fleming  now  lives" 
was  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Province  in  1729, 
and  the  parish  church  (St.  Paul's  Episcopal)  was  begun  in 
1 73 1.  Down  to  the  year  1758  there  appear  to  have  been 
no  other  places  of  worship  in  the  town  excepting  the  meet- 
ing houses,  where  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  of 
whom  a  great  portion  of  the  first  settlers  in  Baltimore 
County  consisted,  from  time  to  time  assembled.  In  1752 
the  entire  population  of  Baltimore  County,  which  then  in- 
cluded Harford  County,  was  reported  at  17,238  souls  of 
whom  11,345  were  described  as  whites,  970  as  servants 
probably  redemptioners,  571  as  convicts,  312  as  mulattoes  of 
whom  196  were  free,  and,  4,035  as  negroes  of  whom  8  were 
free.  Baltimore  Town  at  this  time  is  reported  to  have  con- 
sisted of  twenty-five  houses,  one  church  and  two  taverns. 
About  1758  Messrs.  Larsh,  Steiger,  Keeport  and  others  de- 
scribed as  German  or  Dutch  Presbyterians  built  a  small 
place  of  worship  which  was  occupied  by  the  German  Re- 
formed and  Lutheran  Congregations. 

Referring  to  the  Presbyterian  families  who,  Dr.  Allison 
says,  came  to  Baltimore  about  1761,  Dr.  Backus,  in  the 
Historical  Discourse  delivered  to  his  congregation  on  Sept- 
ember 25,  1859,  said:  ''Among  those  said  to  have  come  from 
Pennsylvania  were  Messrs.  John  Smith  and  William  Bu- 
chanan, who  removed  here  from  Carlisle  in  1761,  and  were 
followed  the  next  year  by  Messrs.  Wilham  Smith  and  James 
Sterrett  from  Lancaster  County  and  soon  after  by  Messrs. 
Mark  Alexander,  John  Brown,  Benjamin  Griffith,  Robert 
Purviance  and  William  Spear  from  different  parts  of  Pennsyl- 
vam'a  and  Maryland,  Dr.  John  and  Henry  Stephenson  from 


REYNOLDS  3 

Ireland,  and  Mr.  Jonathan  Plowman  from  England."  Dr. 
William  Lyon  who  came  from  the  North  of  Ireland  had  in 
1 751  already  been  living  some  time  in  Baltimore  Town  and 
there  is  little  doubt  that  others  of  those  who  originally 
formed  this  church  had  also  been  living  here  several  years 
prior  to  1761.  There  had  evidently  before  this  date  not 
been  enough  Presbyterians  in  the  town  or  its  vicinity  to  form 
a  congregation,  but  there  were  some  there  who  had  for  a  con- 
siderable time  been  making  efforts  to  do  so.  It  appears  from 
the  minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  that  as  early 
as  September  20,  1705,  it  had  under  its  consideration  a  call 
which  Mr.  James  Gordon  presented  from  the  people  of  Balti- 
more County  to  Mr.  Hugh  Conn  and  made  arrangements  for 
his  ordination  among  the  abovesaid  people,  and  in  1740  Mr. 
Whitefield  after  his  first  visit  through  this  region  says  he  found 
a  close  opposition  from  the  Presbyterians  in  Baltimore.  In 
1 751  Rev.  Samuel  Davies  (afterwards  President  of  Princeton 
College)  sent  Dr.  Bellamy  of  New  England  an  account  of  an 
extraordinary  revival  of  religion  in  and  around  Baltimore  and 
said  he  learned  that  Mr.  Whittlesey,  a  Presbyterian  minister, 
was  about  to  settle  in  that  region.  In  1760  it  appears  from 
a  manuscript  in  the  posession  of  the  Presbyterian  Historical 
Society  that  Donegal  Presbytery  appointed  Mr.  John  Steele 
to  preach  one  Sabbath  in  Baltimore.  In  1761  Mr.  Hector 
Allison  preached  there  for  several  Sabbaths,  and  it  appears 
from  the  records  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle  that 
application  was  made  to  it  by  the  Presbyterians  of  Baltimore 
to  place  a  call  from  them  in  his  hands.  But  on  the  Presby- 
tery sending  a  commission  to  Baltimore  in  November  of 
that  year  it  was  judged  that  the  proposals  were  so  unsatis- 
factory, that  it  was  inexpedient  to  suffer  such  a  caU  to  be 


4  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

placed  in  his  hands.  The  congregation  was  small,  without 
a  house  of  worship,  and  unable  to  support  a  minister;  and 
as  Mr.  Allison  had  been  ordained  in  1746  he  in  all  probability 
was  married  and  had  a  family,  which  would  make  it  more 
difficult  to  sustain  him  than  a  younger  man.  He  soon 
afterward  settled  in  Williamsburg,  South  Carolina. 

On  July  7,  1 761,  the  following  advertisement  appeared  in 
the  Maryland  Gazette : 

Religion,  the  crowning  Excellence  of  intelligent  Nature,  claims 
the  Approbation  and  close  Attention  of  every  respectable  Being 
who  expects  future  Bliss.  We  are  bound  from  Principles  of 
Gratitude  and  Interest  to  promote  the  Honour  and  Worship  of 
the  Supreme  Mind,  as  necessary  to  our  own  Prosperity,  the  God 
of  Society,  and  the  future  Happiness  of  Man.  Sustained  by 
these  interesting  Motives,  we  of  the  Presbyterian  Persuasion  in 
this  Town  desire  not  from  Party  Views,  but  from  real  Principle, 
to  purchase  a  Lot  of  Ground  to  erect  a  decent  Church  for  Divine 
Ser\ace,  in  which  we  may  worship  GOD  according  to  our  con- 
sciences. Upon  Enquiry  we  find  ourselves  as  yet  insufficient  to 
raise  such  a  sum  as  is  necessary  to  accomplish  such  an  important 
design,  beg  leave  therefore  to  sollicit  the  Generosity  of  our  Fellow 
Christians  to  assist  and  encourage  us  in  compleating  a  small 
lottery  at  a  time  when  the  Benevolence  of  our  Countrymen  is 
so  well  tried  in  this  Way.  We  hope  our  Claim  to  the  public 
Attention  is  equal  to  any  that  has  sollicited  their  Notice  and 
humbly  expect  that  we  shall  meet  with  general  Encouragement. 

Then  followed  the  scheme  of  the  lottery  which  was  to 
consist  of  5,000  tickets  to  be  sold  at  four  dollars  apiece,  2,589 
of  them  to  draw  prizes  varying  from  $5  to  $1,500,  amounting 
in  all  to  the  sum  of  $20,000,  and  the  remaining  2,411  tickets 
to  be  blanks.  The  conditions  were  '^that  the  lottery  should 
be  drawn  in  Baltimore  Town  as  soon  as  the  tickets  were  dis- 
posed of"  and  ''that  a  deduction  of  Fifteen  Dollars  be  made 
from  every  Prize  of  one  hundred  Dollars  and  so  in  Propor- 


REYNOLDS  5 

tion  for  any  greater  or  lesser  Prizes  thereby  to  raise  the  Sum 
intended  of  Three  Thousand  Dollars.  The  managers  ap- 
pointed are  Messrs.  John  Smith,  Wm.  Buchanan,  John  Stev- 
enson, Jonathan  Plowman,  William  Lyon  and  Nicholas  Rux- 
ton  Gay  of  Baltimore;  Mr.  David  M.  McCulloch  of  Joppa; 
Mr.  George  Stevenson  of  York;  Col.  John  Armstrong  of  Car- 
lisle; Dr.  David  Ross  of  Bladensburg;  Mr.  Peter  Hubbert  of 
Dorset;  and  Mr.  Jonas  Green  of  Annapohs;  who  are  to  give 
Bond  and  be  upon  Oath  faithfully  to  discharge  the  trust 
reposed  in  them."  This  advertisement  was  published  until 
the  end  of  the  year  or  longer  but  the  scheme  failed  and 
another  attempt  was  made  a  year  later,  for  the  Maryland 
Gazette  of  July  15,  1762,  advertised  another  lottery  with  the 
same  managers  and  the  same  amount  to  be  raised  but  with 
higher  prizes.  Nor  does  it  seem  that  this  second  attempt 
resulted  more  successfully,  for  in  the  Maryland  Gazette  of 
June  23,  1763,  one  of  the  managers  announced  that  as  the 
lottery  was  not  likely  to  be  held,  he  wished  tickets  he  had 
signed  to  be  returned  to  him. 

This  issue  of  a  call  to  Mr.  Hector  Allison  to  become  its 
minister  and  this  effort  to  raise  by  a  lottery  the  funds 
required  to  build  a  church  edifice,  both  of  which  occurred  in 
the  year  1761,  and  both  of  which  were  unsuccessful,  are  the 
first  acts  of  which  we  have  any  record  as  having  been  under- 
taken in  concert  by  any  number  of  those  who  afterwards 
composed  the  Congregation  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Baltimore.  In  the  absence  of  certain  information  concern- 
ing the  exact  date  on  which  the  call  was  issued  we  are 
unable  to  state  whether  it  or  the  advertisement  of  the 
lottery  scheme  preceded  in  point  of  time,  but  the  probability 
would  seem  to  be  that  they  must  have  been  nearly  simul- 


6  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

taneous  and  that  the  lottery  scheme  was  adopted  as  the 
most  effective  means  for  raising  the  funds  required  to  secure 
a  favorable  acceptance  of  the  call. 

In  passing  judgment  upon  the  propriety  of  the  means 
thus  employed  common  fairness  requires  us  to  look  at  it 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  public  opinion  generally  pre- 
vailing among  the  better  classes  of  the  community  in  which 
the  actors  then  Kved,  rather  than  from  that  of  the  public 
opinion  which  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
had  impelled  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union  to  abolish 
lotteries  and  the  Federal  Government  to  deny  the  use  of 
its  mails  for  the  carrying  of  any  letters,  postal-cards  or  circu- 
lars concerning  them.  Down  to  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  and  later  few  people  considered  lotteries 
immoral,  and  they  were  very  generally  regarded  as  a  proper 
and  legitimate  means  for  raising  money  for  reHgious, 
charitable  and  public  purposes. 

The  British  Museum  was  founded  in  1753  with  £100,000 
raised  by  a  lottery  authorized  by  Act  of  Parliament  which 
designates  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Lord  High 
Chancellor  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  as 
managers. 

The  second  edifice  of  St.  Paul's  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  at  Baltimore  of  which  the  corner  stone  was  laid  April 
25,  1780,  was  erected  with  the  assistance  of  money  raised  by 
lottery  which  realized  $33,443  currency.  The  funds  for 
the  erection  by  the  State  of  Maryland  of  the  monument  to 
George  Washington,  completed  in  1826,  were  raised  largely 
by  lotteries;  and  it  is  interesting  to  find  in  the  records  of 
the  Session  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  as  illus- 
trative of  the  change  in  public  opinion  in  regard  to  lotteries, 


REYNOLDS  7 

an  entry  under  the  date  of  June  1842,  some  sixteen  years 
before  they  were  abolished  by  law,  that  an  applicant  for 
membership  in  this  church  by  letter  from  a  church  of  the 
Eastern  Shore  had  publicly  and  frankly  stated  to  a  committee 
of  the  session  to  whom  his  application  was  referred  'Hhat 
he  had  been  led  to  view  the  practice  of  dealing  in  lottery 
tickets  to  be  not  only  ruinous  to  the  temporal  interests, 
but  destructive  to  all  spiritual  growth  and  comfort,  and  that 
he  had  been  betrayed  into  it  unawares  and  had  since 
determined  to  renounce  it  forever,  and  would  not  feel  at 
liberty  for  any  temporal  gain  to  engage  in  the  business 
again  even  to  the  smallest  extent." 

Notwithstanding  their  having  thus  failed  to  raise  by 
lottery  the  funds  required  to  build  a  church,  the  little 
congregation  continued  their  efforts  to  obtain  a  minister 
and  having  heard  from  several  of  the  Baltimore  students 
then  attending  Newark  Academy  most  favorable  accounts 
of  their  tutor,  Mr.  Patrick  Allison,  a  young  graduate  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  been  licensed  to  preach 
in  March  1763  by  the  Philadelphia  Presbytery,  they 
requested  that  body  in  May  1 763  and  afterwards  in  August 
of  the  same  year  to  send  him  to  preach  to  them.  Although 
invited  at  the  same  time  to  become  the  pastor  of  what  was 
then  a  much  larger  church  in  New  Castle,  Delaware,  he 
expressed  his  preference  to  receive  the  call  from  Baltimore 
and  with  the  approval  of  the  presbytery,  accepted  an  in- 
vitation to  remain  with  them  a  year  in  the  character  of  a 
constant  supply,  the  congregation  engaging  in  September 
1763,  to  pay  him  a  salary  of  £100  a  year,  Pennsylvania 
currency,  and  whatever  could  be  raised  above  this  sum  from 
the  present  or  future  subscribers.     The  connection  thus 


8  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

begun  proving  mutually  agreeable,  was  prolonged  and  he 
became  their  permanent  pastor  and  remained  so  until  his 
death  in  1802.  Dr.  Allison  says  that  the  infant  society 
when  he  came  there  contained  not  more  than  eight  or  nine 
families  that  seemed  to  be  permanently  fixed. 

On  December  5,  1763,  they  leased  two  lots  on  Fayette 
(then  called  East)  Street  in  the  rear  of  the  present  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  of  the  Messiah  at  the  corner  of  Gay 
Street  and  there  erected  a  small  log  church,  which  was  sold 
to  Mr.  Charles  Ridgely,  Jr.,  about  a  year  and  a  half  later. 
The  lot  had  a  front  of  60  feet  on  the  south  side  of  East  lane 
with  a  depth  of  107  feet  six  inches.  The  lease  was  for  a 
term  of  99  years  renewable  forever  at  the  annual  rate  of 
£3  sterling  and  was  made  to  John  Smith,  William  Buchanan, 
William  Smith,  James  Sterett,  John  Stevenson,  William 
Lyon  and  Jonathan  Plowman  for  and  on  behalf  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Congregation  in  Baltimore  Town  in  trust  for  and  to 
the  use  of  the  Minister  and  Elders  of  the  aforesaid  congrega- 
tion, for  the  time  being  and  the  congregation  in  general  for 
to  build  and  erect  a  meeting  house,  etc. 

Down  to  February  1764  all  church  business  seems  to 
have  been  transacted  at  congregational  meetings,  which  all 
the  members  of  the  congregation  were  invited  to  and  were 
supposed  to  attend.  Although  doubtless  minutes  of  these 
meetings  were  taken  and  recorded,  none  of  them  have  been 
so  preserved  as  to  be  now  accessible  save  those  of  the 
meeting  recited  at  the  beginning  of  the  minute  book  of  the 
''Committee"  or  Trustees,  which  book  begins  as  follows: 

''The  Presbyterian  Congregation  of  Baltimore  Town 
feeling  the  inconveniences  which  arise  in  the  management 
of  congregational  matters  where  the  general  attendance 


rp™^ 


y. 


REYNOLDS  9 

of  the  Society  is  made  necessary  on  every  occasion,  resolved 
to  adopt  the  usual  expedient  in  such  cases,  viz:  to  select 
a  certain  number  of  their  members  as  a  committee  (wherein 
the  Minister  for  the  time  being  shall  preside)  whose  imme- 
diate business  it  should  be  to  direct  and  transact  pubHc 
affairs  in  the  name  of  the  Society  before  whom  their 
proceedings  are  to  be  laid  as  often  as  required,  and  without 
whose  consent  no  new  regulations  or  alterations  of  conse- 
quence are  to  take  place.  They  therefore  convened  at  the 
meeting  House,  pubHc  notice  having  been  previously  given 
on  Monday  the  sixth  of  February  1764  and  proceeded  to  the 
election  of  a  committee  for  the  aforesaid  purpose  when  the 
following  gentlemen  were  unanimously  appointed:  John 
Stevenson,  John  Smith,  WilHam  Lyon,  WilHam  Buchanan, 
WiHiam  Smith,  James  Sterett,  William  Spear  and  Jonathan 
Plowman.  The  Committee  thus  regularly  chosen  being 
called  together,  the  Rev.  Patrick  AHison,  President,  nom- 
inated Mr.  James  Kelso  clerk  and  agreed  to  meet  at  Mr. 
Kelso's  the  loth  instant  in  order  to  enter  upon  Business." 
Dr.  AHison  writing  in  1793  says:  ''their  Secular  affairs  are 
managed  by  a  Committee  who  meet  at  each  other's  Houses 
in  the  Evening  commonly  once  a  month."  As  the  secular 
affairs  of  the  congregation  could  not  often  at  that  period 
be  of  such  a  character  as  to  consume  an  entire  evening  and 
as  the  old-fashioned  colonial  hospitaHty  prevaiKng  in  those 
days  required  the  host  to  set  refreshments  before  every 
visitor  who  called,  it  may  be  well  understood  that  these 
monthly  meetings  of  the  committee  partook  somewhat  of 
the  nature  of  social  reunions.  From  an  entry  upon  its 
records  made  December  10,  1781,  it  would  appear  that  the 
Committee  down  to  that  time  at  least  had  entire  charge  of  the 


lO  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

administration  of  spiritual  as  well  as  secular  matters,  for 
it  is  there  recited  that:  ''The  pecuhar  circumstances  of  our 
Society  at  its  first  formation  especially  the  small  number 
able  and  willing  to  discharge  public  trusts  therein  obliged 
some  persons  to  fill  dift'erent  employments  in  the  capacity  of 
both  what  are  called  elders  and  deacons  or  committee  men. 
But  our  respectable  establishment  and  happy  increase 
now  furnish  the  means  of  removing  this  inconvenience. 
Be  it  therefore  remembered  that  the  following  gentlemen: 
Dr.  William  Lyon,  Messrs.  John  Smith,  WilKam  Buchanan 
and  James  Sterett,  who  originally  acted  in  these  two 
characters,  being  previously  chosen  by  the  congregation 
agree  to  serve  under  the  former  (that  of  elders)  alone." 
The  elders  thus  chosen  were  not  ordained,  kept  no  sessional 
records  and  are  not  beheved  to  have  discharged  any  sessional 
duties  other  than  dispensing  the  elements  at  the  communion 
and  electing  from  time  to  time  one  of  their  own  number  to 
represent  the  congregation  at  the  presbytery  or  synod. 
Applicants  for  admission  to  full  membership  in  the  church 
did  not  appear  before  the  session  until  the  year  1814. 

In  March  1765  the  congregation  purchased  from  Alex- 
ander Lawson  a  lot  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Fayette  and 
North  Streets  now  occupied  by  the  United  States  Post 
Office  and  Custom  House,  with  a  front  of  eighty  feet  on 
East  (now  Fayette)  Street  and  running  back  to  Jones' 
Falls,  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  a  church  and  for  a  grave- 
yard. And  in  May  of  the  same  year  it  agreed  to  buy  from 
Mr.  Lawson  forty  more  feet  of  ground  adjoining  the  church 
lot  for  a  parsonage.  The  church  was  completed  in  Novem- 
ber 1766.  It  was  a  plain  brick  building  forty-five  feet  long  by 
thirty-five  feet  wide  containing  thirty-six  pews  all  of  which 


REYNOLDS  II 

were  promptly  rented  except  two.  Meantime  Dr.  Allison 
had  been  ordained  at  Philadelphia  in  August  1765.  The 
parsonage,  however,  was  not  built  until  sixteen  years  later. 
There  seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  a  small  Presbyterian 
congregation  in  Baltimore  County  which  was  to  some  extent 
connected  with  this  church  for  we  find  among  the  records 
of  the  committee  an  entry,  bearing  date  of  April  20,  1767, 
to  the  effect  that  they  engaged  to  pay  Mr.  Allison  "sl  salary 
of  £150  per  annum  for  three  years  for  the  Town,  and  appli- 
cation having  been  made  by  the  County  Society  for  one- 
fourth  of  his  services  they  are  engaged  to  pay  him  £50 
annually  for  the  same  time."  In  May  1768  the  new  congre- 
gation on  Pine  Street,  Philadelphia,  presented  to  the 
presbytery  a  call  for  Mr.  AlHson  signed  by  96  persons. 
There  appears  to  have  been  some  discussion  in  the  presbytery 
about  this  call  but  the  minutes  give  no  particulars  beyond 
stating  that  Mr.  AlHson  declined  to  sit  as  a  member  of  the 
presbytery  while  the  matter  was  before  it.  In  the  following 
August  Mr.  AlHson  signified  his  willingness  to  accept  the 
call  but  in  December  declined  it.  It  is  beHeved  that  he 
was  induced  thus  to  change  his  mind  and  remain  in  Balti- 
more mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Samuel  Purviance, 
who  about  this  time  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  Balti- 
more and  became  a  member  of  his  congregation. 

In  1770  a  part  of  the  roof  of  the  new  church  was  carried 
away  by  a  severe  storm.  In  April  1771  the  committee 
decided  to  renew  the  plan  of  building  a  parsonage  as 
previously  designed  by  it,  and  a  lottery  was  proposed  as 
the  most  ehgible  method  to  raise  money  for  that  purpose. 
Four  members  of  the  committee  were  then  appointed  to 
report  a  draught  of  "a  lottery  scheme"  at  its  next  meeting, 


1 2  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

but  it  was  two  months  before  a  ''scheme"  v/as  framed  that 
was  entirely  satisfactory.  When  this  was  accomplished 
a  congregational  meeting  was  called  for  June  24,  1771,  and 
having  duly  assembled  it  was  resolved  to  enlarge  the  church 
and  build  a  parsonage  ''and  a  lottery  being  thought  the 
most  eligible  method  to  raise  money  for  that  purpose  and 
a  scheme  of  a  lottery  which  had  been  laid  before  the  con- 
gregation being  approved  of,  the  whole  management  of  the 
affair  was  referred  to  the  committee  who  resolved  to 
prosecute  the  lottery  with  all  expediency." 

The  members  of  the  committee  appear  to  have  entered 
into  this  lottery  with  enthusiasm  and  to  have  sent  out 
several  of  their  number  armed  with  lottery  books  to  go 
around  among  their  friends  and  acquaintances  to  solicit 
their  subscription  for  tickets.  When  enough  of  them  had 
been  subscribed  for,  the  drawing  of  the  lottery  was  begun 
(under  the  supervision  of  certain  members  of  the  committee 
duly  appointed)  on  October  15  and  continued  from  day  to 
day  until  completed.  But  after  the  prizes  had  all  been 
given  out  there  seems  to  have  been  considerable  difficulty 
in  collecting  the  subscriptions  of  some  of  the  persons  whose 
tickets  had  drawn  blanks,  for  in  April,  1773,  a  year  after 
the  drawing,  many  of  them  were  reported  as  still  unsettled 
and  some  remained  so  as  late  as  January,  1775.  The  money 
raised  by  this  lottery  was  appropriated  partly  to  pay  for 
the  addition  made  to  the  church  in  1771  whereby  it  was 
enlarged  one-third  and  the  number  of  pews  increased  to 
fifty,  and  partly  towards  paying  for  the  forty  feet  of  ground 
purchased  for  the  addition  to  the  church  and  for  the  burial 
ground  which  was  leased  from  Andrew  Buchanan  in  Feb- 
ruary 1772  and  the  release  of  the  reversion  thereof  obtained 
a  year  later. 


REYNOLDS  I3 

The  attempt  to  build  a  parsonage  seems  to  have  been 
abandoned  for  the  time,  but  was  renewed  with  better 
success  several  years  later  and  was  finally  successful  in  the 
year  1781,  when  one  was  erected  on  what  is  now  part  of 
the  bed  of  North  Street.  In  1785  the  first  steps  were  taken 
to  purchase  the  burial  ground  at  the  corner  of  Fayette  and 
Greene  Streets  upon  which  the  Westminster  Church  was 
afterwards  erected.  Up  to  this  time  the  churchyard  had 
been  used  as  a  place  of  burial. 

In  1789  the  congregation  met  to  confer  upon  the  subject 
of  building  a  new  church  and  concluded  to  build  it  upon  the 
site  of  that  which  they  then  occupied.  Sixteen  hundred 
pounds  were  subscribed  and  it  was  recommended  that  ''the 
standing  committee  take  order  for  increasing  and  collecting 
the  funds  for  building  the  church  by  lottery  or  otherwise  as 
they  may  deem  expedient."  The  records  of  the  committee 
show  that  the  lottery  was  conducted  under  their  authority 
and  some  money  raised  in  that  way,  but  as  the  mention 
is  rather  incidental  and  no  particulars  are  given  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  the  scheme  was  formally  submitted  to 
the  congregation  for  its  approval  and  the  drawing  personally 
conducted  by  the  committee  as  on  a  previous  occasion. 

The  new  church  building  was  to  be  sixty  by  eighty  feet, 
two  stories  high,  with  a  belfry  and  galleries  ten  feet  from 
the  floor.  Messrs.  Gilmor  and  Patterson  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  get  plans  and  estimates.  In  1790  the 
congregation  appHed  for  and  obtained  the  use  of  the  Court 
House  as  a  place  of  worship  while  the  church  was  building. 
In  1 79 1  it  was  sufficiently  completed  for  use  and  in  May  of 
that  year  after  notice  on  three  successive  Sabbaths,  the 
congregation  met  to  inspect  the  accounts  and  adopt  a  plan 
for  disposing  the  pews. 


14  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  the  following  year  1792,  the  committee  made  a  full 
report  to  the  congregation  of  their  proceedings  from  the 
beginning,  a  period  of  twenty-eight  years,  in  which  they 
pointed  out  that  during  this  period,  two  church  edifices 
besides  the  original  log  building  had  been  erected,  one  of 
them  enlarged,  a  parsonage  built  and  the  lots  for  these  build- 
ings and  one  for  a  burial  ground  had  been  purchased,  the 
annual  salaries  had  been  collected  with  unusual  accuracy, 
inferior  expenses  had  been  defrayed  without  applying  to 
the  congregation  or  to  the  public  fund  and  the  temporahties 
of  the  congregation  brought  into  the  most  flourishing  state, 
and  then  went  on  to  say:  ''As  members  of  the  church,  a 
connection  we  value  more  than  being  members  of  the 
committee,  we  declare  our  readiness  to  consult,  advise  and 
act  with  our  brethren  in  a  congregational  capacity  on 
whatever  plan  may  be  proposed  for  accompHshing  the 
great  design  for  which  we  have  voluntarily  joined  ourselves 
together  in  a  Christian  community  not  questioning  but 
the  harmony,  candor  and  mutual  forbearance  we  have  here- 
tofore enjoyed  will  continue  and  prove  no  less  honorable  to 
our  reputation  than  auspicious  to  our  affairs." 

During  this  period  the  congregation  had  increased 
according  to  Dr.  Allison  from  eight  or  more  families  to  one 
hundred  and  sixty  famiUes  and  the  growth  of  its  temporal 
prosperity  had  kept  pace  with  that  of  the  city  of  Baltimore. 
The  reason  for  this  we  need  not  go  far  to  seek  for  its  member- 
ship comprised  most  of  the  leading  citizens  of  this  town  so 
rapidly  pressing  forward  in  the  path  of  prosperity.  Nearly 
all  of  the  httle  group  which  first  organized  it,  and  most  of 
those  who  subsequently  joined  them  were  merchants  of 
Scotch-Irish  birth  or  descent  and  they  were  the  class  whose 


REYNOLDS  I 5 

efforts  were  mainly  instrumental  in  building  up  Baltimore 
from  a  village  of  thirty  houses  in  1763  to  a  city  with  a  popu- 
lation of  over  thirteen  thousand  in  1790. 

These  Scotch-Irish  who  played  so  important  a  part  in  the 
development  and  prosperity  of  the  middle  and  western 
part  of  our  country  for  some  time  prior  to  and  after  the 
Revolution  were  the  descendants  of  those  colonists  from 
Scotland  whom  James  I  had  settled  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  in  the  six  counties  of  Donegal,  Derry, 
Tyrone,  Fermanagh,  Cavan  and  Armaugh  in  the  province 
of  Ulster  in  Ireland  where  some  two  miUion  acres  of  land 
had  lately  escheated  to  the  English  crown.  These  Scotch- 
Irish  who  were  mostly  Presbyterians  in  faith  had  become 
quite  numerous  when  the  intolerance  and  persecution  to 
which  they  were  subjected  after  the  death  of  King  William 
III  induced  a  number  of  them  to  emigrate  to  America. 
About  1 7 19  the  leases  made  shortly  after  the  Revolution 
of  1688  and  generally  running  for  a  term  of  thirty-one 
years,  under  w^hich  a  large  proportion  of  the  Scotch-Irish 
tenants  in  Ulster  held  their  farms,  began  to  expire  and  they 
found  themselves  unable  to  renew  them  except  at  much 
higher  rents.  The  result  was  a  large  emigration  of  Scotch- 
Irish  to  America  from  whence  their  former  neighbors 
already  settled  there,  had  been  writing  back  to  them  glowing 
accounts  of  their  newly  found  homes  in  the  Western  World. 

The  stream  of  emigration  continued  from  this  time  until 
about  1782  and  by  far  the  larger  number  of  these  emi- 
grants came  to  Pennsylvania.  Six  thousand  are  reported 
to  have  arrived  there  in  the  year  1729,  and  twelve  thousand 
more  annually  for  several  years  thereafter.  From  1730 
to  1734  these  emigrants  settled  that  beautiful  and  fertile 


1 6  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

region  of  the  State  lying  west  of  the  Susquehanna,  now 
known  as  the  Cumberland  Valley,  comprising  the  present 
Counties  of  Cumberland  and  Franklin,  the  latter  being  a 
part  of  Lancaster  County,  and  the  Valley  being  then  called 
by  its  Indian  name  "the  Kittoch tinny."  Twenty-live  or 
thirty  years  later  these  Scotch-Irish  began  to  come  in 
considerable  numbers  to  Baltimore,  both  from  Pennsylvania 
and  from  the  old  country  direct,  and  their  energy  and 
industry  and  solid  character  contributed  largely  to  the  ad- 
vances it  now  began  to  make  towards  material  prosperity. 
At  the  end  of  the  revolution  it  had  a  population  of  8,000,  in 
1790,  13,000  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
36,000,  making  it  then  the  third  city  of  the  Union  in  point 
of  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  which  in  181 8  amounted 
to  60,000. 

This  rapid  increase  of  Baltimore  was  attributable  mainly 
to  the  steady  growth  of  its  domestic  and  foreign  commerce 
and  the  success  of  its  artisans  in  building  those  fast  cKpper 
ships  which  became  famous  throughout  the  world  and  secured 
for  it  so  large  a  carrying  trade  with  the  West  India  Islands 
and  elsewhere  during  the  protracted  European  wars.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  successful  merchants  of  Baltimore 
naturally  became  its  leading  citizens  socially  and  poKtically 
as  well  as  financially,  and  a  glance  at  the  list  of  the  members 
of  the  committee  from  its  origin  down  to  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  will  show  that  it  comprised  a  large 
majority  of  the  leading  merchants  of  Baltimore  of  that  day 
and  could  therefore  exercise  an  important  influence  on  its 
public  concerns. 

Meanwhile  Dr.  Allison  on  account  of  his  own  personality 
had  become  a  power  in  the  community.     Dr.  Backus  in 


j 


REYNOLDS  I 7 

that  Historical  Discourse  already  quoted  thus  describes  him 
as  a  pastor  worthy  of  such  a  congregation  and  such  a 
committee:  " Coming  here  in  early  youth  with  distinguished 
talents,  accurate  and  extensive  culture,  a  firm  friend  of 
learning  and  order,  zealous  for  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
but  eminently  conservative,  he  acquired  during  a  period 
of  nearly  forty  years  a  reputation  and  influence  second 
to  no  other  in  the  community.  As  a  preacher  he  was 
rather  didactic  and  argumentative  than  rhetorical.  His 
sermons  were  addressed  to  the  understanding  more  than 
to  the  passions.  Although  he  read  closely  and  his  man- 
ner was  not  animated  his  style  was  yet  so  chaste,  lucid 
and  nervous  that  his  discourses  always  awakened  attention 
and  interest.  It  was  however  in  his  aptness  for  public 
business  that  he  stood  especially  preeminent.  From  the 
origin  of  the  Presbytery  of  Baltimore  (in  1786)  he  was  a 
leading  member  of  that  body  being  its  moderator  during 
the  first  seven  years  and  taking  a  prominent  part  in  every 
important  measure.  In  the  higher  judicatories  of  the 
church  he  exerted  no  less  commanding  influence.  Coming 
upon  the  stage  with  the  most  distinguished  fights  that  have 
adorned  the  annals  of  our  church,  the  Tennents,  Gillespie, 
Bostwick,  Davies,  Blair,  Rogers,  Witherspoon,  Nesbit  and 
others — men  renowned  for  learning,  piety  and  influence, 
*he  undoubtedly,'  says  Dr.  Miller,  ^held  the  first  rank  of 
American  clergy.  For  the  perspicuity,  correctness,  sound 
reasoning  and  masculine  eloquence  of  his  speeches  in 
ecclesiastical  assembfies  he  was  long  admired  and  had 
scarcely  an  equal.'  Dr.  Stanhope  Smith,  president  of 
Princeton  College  pronounced  him  the  ablest  statesman 
in  our   General  Assembly.     And   the  general  interest  in 


1 8  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

which  he  was  held  by  the  church  at  large  is  clearly  evinced 
by  the  important  duties  that  were  assigned  to  him  when 
after  the  measures  were  taken  for  establishing  the  Presbyter- 
ian Church  in  this  country  on  its  present  basis,  he  was 
made  a  member  of  almost  every  committee  to  conduct  the 
business,  viz:  that  to  arrange  the  several  judicatories,  that 
to  review  our  public  standards,  that  to  mature  a  system  of 
discipline  and  government,  and  that  on  psalmody.  The 
same  talent  for  managing  affairs  in  the  church  was  also 
manifested  in  his  relations  as  a  public-spirited  citizen.  He 
was  one  of  the  original  founders  of  the  Baltimore  College 
and  the  Baltimore  Library  and  united  in  the  earliest  efforts 
here  made  to  establish  schools.  Then  too  in  Revolutionary 
times  he  was  an  ardent  friend  of  civil  and  religious  hberty. 
The  only  writings  he  ever  printed  were  a  funeral  discourse 
on  Washington  and  some  able  newspaper  articles  published 
over  the  signature  'Vindex'  (which  were  subsequently 
printed  in  a  pamphlet)  against  what  he  regarded  as  an 
attempt  of  a  sister  denomination  to  be  recognized  as  having 
a  legal  relation  to  the  State." 

The  occasion  for  writing  the  Vindex  papers  was  that 
Governor  Paca.  during  his  term  of  office  which  began  in 
1782,  recommended  the  legislature  to  make  some  provision 
for  the  support  of  religion  and  a  bill  which  was  introduced 
for  that  purpose  was  regarded  by  Dr.  Allison,  who  was 
always  a  zealous  champion  of  religious  liberty,  as  an  attempt 
to  have  the  Episcopal  (which  had  before  the  Revolution 
been  the  established)  Church,  still  recognized  as  holding 
a  special  relation  to  the  State,  and  these  letters  were  written 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  that  bill.  Their  pubHcation 
excited  much  interest  and  the  arguments  they  advanced  were 


I 


REYNOLDS  I 9 

SO  strong  as  to  cause  the  pending  bill  to  be  modified  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  be  virtually  defeated.  When  the 
Continental  Congress  met  in  Baltimore  in  1776,  Dr.  Allison 
was  often  thrown  into  close  relation  with  its  members  and 
so  became  a  great  favorite  with  many  of  them.  He  was 
also  a  warm  friend  of  General  Washington  and  his  admira- 
tion for  him  was  so  great  that  when  the  General  died, 
Dr.  Allison's  health  was  affected  by  the  shock  to  an  extent 
that  caused  grave  anxiety  to  his  friends.  Soon  after  he 
preached  an  eloquent  funeral  sermon  on  our  first  President 
from  the  text  '^All  Judah  and  Jerusalem  mourned  for 
Josiah." 

Although  his  views  on  the  ecclesiastical  and  political 
questions  of  the  day  were  very  decided  and  always  frankly 
and  forcibly  expressed  whenever  he  discerned  the  occasion 
to  be  appropriate  for  so  doing,  they  were  by  no  means 
narrow  or  bigoted,  nor  did  he  permit  them  to  interfere 
with  his  social  relations  with  those  who  disagreed  with  him. 
He  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Archbishop  Carroll  and 
had  many  admirers  among  the  EpiscopaHans  notwith- 
standing his  ecclesiastical  controversies  with  them.  This 
is  illustrated  by  a  Maryland  Broadside  circulated  in  1789 
in  which  the  author  denounces  him  for  supporting  Dr. 
Carroll  (a  relative  of  the  Archbishop)  as  a  candidate  for 
Congress  and  describes  this  candidacy  as  an  '' alliance 
between  the  sons  of  Calvin  and  the  sons  of  Peter." 

At  that  time  discussions  as  to  the  propriety  of  church 
members  attending  theatrical  performances  ran  high  in 
Baltimore  and  Dr.  Allison's  advice  was  asked  by  many 
conscientious  people.  The  tradition  is  that  all  doubts  as 
to  his  position  were  speedily  removed  when  soon  after  on 


20  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

the  occasion  of  some  standard  drama  being  given  the 
doctor's  tall  and  dignified  form  was  seen  to  enter  the 
theatre  and  take  a  place  among  the  audience.  It  is  also 
known  that  a  dancing  master  came  regularly  to  the  par- 
sonage where  he  had  a  class  for  the  instruction  of  Dr. 
Allison's  only  daughter  and  several  of  her  little  companions. 
The  writer  was  informed  of  this  by  a  member  of  the  First 
Church,  since  deceased,  whose  mother  was  a  member  of 
the  class.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  very  modest  man  and 
decidedly  averse  to  obtruding  his  personaHty  unnecessarily 
upon  the  pubHc,  for  he  directed  his  executors  to  destroy 
all  his  writings.  Nor  is  any  portrait  of  him  extant — for  the 
officers  of  the  congregation  have  been  uniformly  unsuccess- 
ful for  many  years  past  in  their  persistent  and  repeated 
endeavors  to  discover  one. 

In  the  year  1792  Dr.  Allison  prepared  an  abridgment 
of  the  Shorter  Catechism  which  the  Committee  recom- 
mended to  be  used  by  the  congregation  for  the  instruction 
of  their  children  on  Sunday  afternoons  as  was  then  the 
prevailing  custom,  and  in  1793  he  wrote  the  account  of 
the  "Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Baltimore  Town,"  already  referred  to.  The  original 
manuscript  is  among  the  archives  of  the  Presbyterian 
Historical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  but  is  not  known  to 
have  been  ever  printed  before  the  year  1895. 

In  1795  the  committee  ordered  the  two  towers  of  the 
new  church  to  be  completed  and  in  1797  applied  to  the 
legislature  for  a  charter,  which  was  granted  on  January  20, 
1798,  to  the  congregation  under  the  corporate  name  of 
the  ''Committee  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  City 
of  Baltimore"  with  the  right  to  purchase  thereafter  real 
and  personal  property  not  exceeding  in  value  the  sum  of 


THE  TWO  STEEPLE  CHURCH 


REYNOLDS  21 

six  thousand  dollars  current  money  of  the  United  States. 
This  sum  has  been  from  time  to  time  increased  to  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  A  previous  attempt  to  secure 
a  charter  had  been  made  in  1774,  but  as  this  was  in  the 
days  before  the  abolition  of  the  established  church,  it 
proved  unsuccessful. ^ 

In  the  same  year,  1798,  it  was  declared  expedient  to 
reduce  the  ground  around  the  church,  and  in  1800  an 
agreement  was  made  in  reference  to  the  widening  of  North 
Lane  and  reducing  the  ground  around  the  church  which 
had  for  a  number  of  years  been  used  for  burial  purposes. 
The  congregation  reserved  the  right  to  continue  the  par- 
sonage as  long  as  it  suited  them  to  do  so,  not  exceeding  ten 
years,  on  a  part  of  the  proposed  bed  of  the  street  so  agreed 
to  be  opened,  and  did  in  fact  continue  it  thereon  until  1805. 

Early  in  1800  Dr.  Allison's  health  began  to  fail.  He 
became  so  depressed  in  spirits  that  in  November,  1801, 
he  felt  constrained  to  apply  to  the  presbytery  for  permission 
to  resign  his  charge  and  demit  his  office.  To  this  the 
congregation  would  not  assent  but,  urging  him  to  suspend 
his  labor  and  seek  a  restoration  of  his  health,  offered  to 
secure  him  an  assistant.  The  presbytery  therefore  recom- 
mended him  to  withdraw  his  resignation. 

About  this  time  Rev.  Archibald  Alexander,  afterwards 
professor  of  didactic  theology  in  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary,  but  then  a  young  man  living  in  Prince  Edward 
County,  Virginia,  while  on  his  journey  home  from  a  visit 
to  New  England  stopped  over  night  at  Baltimore  and 
lodged  with  his  friend,  Mr.  James  Priestly,  who  with  some 

^  A  copy  of  the  petition  of  the  Committee  to  Governor  Eden  with  the 
accompanying  draft  of  the  proposed  charter  will  be  found  in  Vol  IV  of  the 
Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  p.  228. 


22  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CUHRCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

difficulty  persuaded  him  to  remain  in  the  city  over  Sunday 
and  fill  the  pulpit  for  Dr.  Allison  who  felt  unable  to  preach. 
He  then  proceeded  on  his  way  home  as  far  as  Alexandria 
where  he  found  the  Baltimore  Presbytery  then  in  session 
and  while  there  received  a  letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  Muir  of 
Alexandria  urgently  requesting  him  to  return  to  Baltimore 
and  continue  to  preach  there  for  two  or  three  weeks  longer, 
which  after  some  hesitation  he  consented  to  do.  Shortly 
after  his  return  home  he  received  a  letter  from  his  friend 
Priestly  purporting  to  have  been  written  at  the  request  of 
leading  members  of  the  congregation  informing  him  that 
they  were  disposed  to  give  him  a  call  as  Dr.  Allison's 
assistant  provided  they  could  be  satisfied  respecting  his 
principles  and  habits  in  regard  to  the  disciphne  of  the 
church,  and  expressing  a  hope  that  at  any  rate  he  would 
not  go  beyond  the  Confession  of  Faith.  Mr.  Alexander 
repHed  declining  to  give  any  explicit  answer  to  the  questions 
propounded  because  he  had  no  wish  to  be  a  candidate  and 
requested  his  correspondent  so  to  inform  the  congregation. 
Meantime  two  other  candidates,  Mr.  Inghs  and  Mr.  Glendy 
preached  in  Baltimore,  both  of  whom  had  warm  adherents. 
On  January  2,  1802,  a  congregational  meeting  for  the 
purpose  of  electing  an  assistant  minister  was  held  at  which 
Mr.  Priestly  read  Mr.  Alexander's  letter  and  also  stated 
to  the  congregation  that  he  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  same  church  and  under  the  same  pastor  as  Mr.  Alex- 
ander and  that  the  discipline  there  practiced  was  extremely 
rigid,  mentioning  as  an  illustration  thereof  that  he  had 
himself  been  arraigned  and  tried  before  the  session  for  no 
other  offense  than  making  up  a  company  on  the  Sabbath 
to  go  next  day  to  see  the  Natural  Bridge.     Many  of  the 


REYNOLDS  23 

people  were  displeased  however  that  a  letter  should  have 
been  written  Mr.  Alexander  respecting  his  opinions  on 
church  discipHne  and  concluded  that  his  declining  to  be 
a  candidate  was  attributable  to  that  letter;  and  these  being 
in  the  majority  carried  the  vote  in  his  favor  although  all  the 
wealthier  and  more  distinguished  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion voted  for  Mr.  Inghs  or  Mr.  Glendy.  A  call  was  then 
prepared  and  duly  certified  by  Dr.  Muir  who  had  come 
over  from  Alexandria  to  moderate  the  meeting,  and  two 
commissioners  were  elected  who  undertook  to  bring  it  to 
Mr.  Alexander  who  was  then  on  a  preaching  tour  through 
Charlotte  and  Halifax  counties  in  Virginia. 

The  two  commissioners  having  the  call  in  charge  traveled 
in  company  with  Dr.  Muir  as  far  as  Alexandria  and  at  his 
invitation  spent  the  night  with  him,  but  after  supper  when 
warmed  up  under  the  genial  influence  of  the  good  doctor's 
Virginia  hospitality  they  waxed  confidential  and  incau- 
iously  allowed  it  to  leak  out  that  while  Mr.  Alexander  had 
a  numerical  majority  of  votes  cast,  the  weight  of  the  wealth, 
inteUigence  and  influence  in  the  congregation  was  against  him 
and  not  one  of  the  committee  was  in  his  favor.  Dr.  Muir 
on  learning  this  said  nothing  at  the  time,  but  as  soon  as  he 
had  sent  his  guests  to  bed  sat  down  and  wrote  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Alexander  detailing  all  he  had  thus  learned,  and  next 
morning  when  the  commissioners  departed  on  their  way  he 
asked  them  to  deliver  along  with  the  call  a  letter  that  he 
had  himself  just  written  to  him  which  they  in  happy  ignor- 
ance of  its  contents  declared  they  would  do  with  pleasure. 
The  call  when  presented  was  declined,  but  when  the  com- 
missioners afterwards  learned  what  Dr.  Muir  had  written, 
they  were  much  displeased  with  him  for  interfering  with 
the  matter. 


24  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  February,  1802,  a  second  election  was  held  for  as- 
sistant pastor  at  which  the  successful  candidate  was  Mr. 
James  Inglis  of  New  York,  a  young  man  who  had  studied 
law  in  the  office  of  Alexander  Hamilton  but  within  a  year 
after  his  admission  to  the  bar  had  abandoned  the  legal 
profession  for  theology,  which  he  studied  under  Dr.  Rodgers, 
and  was  licensed  by  the  presbytery  of  New  York  in  1801. 
He  was  chosen  by  a  small  majority  over  Dr.  Glendy  who 
was  then  settled  near  Staunton,  Virginia,  and  had  been 
warmly  recommended  to  the  congregation  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
then  President  of  the  United  States.  Party  spirit  ran 
very  high  in  Maryland  at  that  time  and  its  bitterness  was 
felt  in  social  and  even  ecclesiastical  controversies  as  well 
as  in  political  ones.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  a  few  years  later  a  Federalist  Gity  Council  of  Baltimore 
named  one  of  the  streets  after  President  Madison  for  the 
reason  that  ''it  began  at  the  poorhouse  and  ended  at  the 
jail,"  which  they  professed  to  regard  as  typical  of  the  career 
of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  that  had  elected  Mr. 
Madison,  and  there  is  a  good  reason  to  suspect  that  the 
supporters  of  Mr.  Inghs  and  Dr.  Glendy  were  in  the  main 
divided  along  political  lines.  Dr.  Alexander  in  a  letter 
written  to  Dr.  Backus  in  1847  i^  which  he  relates  the 
circumstances  attending  his  call  to  the  First  Church  in 
1801  says  that  upon  the  election  of  Mr.  IngHs  ''the  friends 
of  Glendy,  being  the  Irish  and  warm  democrats,  went  off  and 
formed  a  second  Presbyterian  Church  and  while  the  Second 
Church  was  in  its  course  of  erection  Mr.  Glendy  and  his 
people  worshipped  in  the  First  Church."  But  whatever 
was  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  secession  which  resulted 
in  the  building  of  the  Second  Church,  its  actual  building 
was  in  fact  but  the  revival  of  a  project  which  had  been 


REYNOLDS  25 

under  consideration  ever  since  the  year  1790,  when  apph*- 
cation  was  made  to  the  presbytery  to  organize  a  Second 
Presbyterian  congregation  in  East  Baltimore.  Dr.  Allison 
had  previously  been  accustomed  to  preach  frequently  at 
Fells  Point  where  a  portion  of  his  congregation  resided,  but 
as  the  First  Church  increased  it  demanded  all  his  time  and 
he  was  not  able  to  go  frequently  to  the  Point.  In  his 
account  of  the  ^'Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church/'  written  in  1793,  he  says:  ''It  has  been  proposed 
at  different  times  to  form  another  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  Town,  and  raise  a  separate  house  of  worship  for 
which  purpose  a  lot  of  ground  was  some  years  ago  generously 
given  by  Col.  John  E.  Howard;  however  the  design  seems 
to  be  waived  for  the  present,  though  there  can  remain  no 
doubt  but  that  such  a  measure  must  become  necessary 
in  a  short  space." 

Although  Dr.  Allison's  health  had  been  at  first  somewhat 
recruited  by  the  suspension  of  the  more  active  duties  of 
his  ministry  it  was  soon  found  that  the  relief  thus  afforded 
was  only  temporary  and  before  long  he  relapsed  into  a 
state  of  deeper  depression  and  died  August  21,  1802.  As 
soon  as  this  became  known  arrangements  were  made  for 
his  interment  in  the  Western  burial  ground  at  the  expense 
of  the  congregation  at  four  o'clock  on  the  next  afternoon 
which  was  the  Sabbath;  and  the  clergy  of  the  city  were 
invited  to  attend  as  pall-bearers.  The  churches  generally 
were  closed  and  the  ministers  of  various  denominations 
were  present  at  the  funeral.  It  was  also  resolved  to  erect 
a  suitable  monument  in  the  church  as  a  memorial  of  the 
veneration  and  esteem  in  which  its  first  pastor  was  held. 
Dr.  IngHs,  his  successor,  preached  the  funeral  sermon  on 
the  following  Sabbath. 


CHAPTER  II 

DR.  INGLIS'S  PASTORATE,  1802-1819 

It  will  be  seen  that  during  the  thirty-nine  years  of  Dr. 
Allison's  pastorate  his  church  had  from  a  very  small 
beginning  attained  a  high  degree  of  material  prosperity, 
thus  keeping  pace  with  Baltimore,  which  during  the  same 
period  had  risen  from  an  insignificant  village  to  a  city  of 
considerable  importance.  The  temporal  prosperity  of  both 
the  congregation  and  the  city  continued  to  advance  rapidly 
and  without  abatement  for  the  next  sixteen  years  until 
the  time  of  the  great  commercial  revolution  of  18 13,  gener- 
ally attributable  to  the  excessive  banking  and  overtrading 
resulting  from  a  long  period  of  unusually  successful  busi- 
ness activities. 

During  this  season  of  remarkable  outward  prosperity 
of  the  church  which  continued  through  almost  the  whole 
period  of  Dr.  Inglis's  ministry,  the  spiritual  interests  were 
not  overlooked  and  although  the  church  enjoyed  no  such 
revivals  as  distinguished  the  succeeding  pastorate,  measures 
were  from  time  to  time  adopted  which  under  Providence 
seem  to  have  been  efficacious  in  preparing  the  way  for 
the  more  favored  seasons. 

In  the  year  1804  the  church  was  for  the  first  time  regularly 
organized  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the  form 
of  Government  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America  by  the  election  and  ordination  of  ruling 
elders.  The  subject  of  the  full  organization  of  the  churches 
under  its  care  had  been  introduced  into  the  Presbytery  of 

26 


REYNOLDS  27 

Baltimore  in  1802  and  a  pastoral  letter  adopted  urging 
upon  the  churches  the  election  and  ordination  of  elders. 
Up  to  this  time  the  delegates  that  had  been  sent  from  this 
church  to  the  presbytery  and  synod  were  simply  unordained 
members  of  the  committee  appointed  by  that  body  to 
represent  the  congregation,  although  they  seem  to  have 
been  called  elders  since  1781,  but  no  sessional  records  were 
kept  before  1804  when  the  volume  containing  them  was 
begun  with  the  following  entry: 

''Be  it  known  that  Messrs.  Robert  Purviance,  David 
Stewart,  Christopher  Johnson  and  George  Salmon  having 
been  previously  elected  to  the  office  of  the  Eldership  in 
the  First  Presbyterian  Congregation  in  the  City  of  Balti- 
more, were  on  the  first  day  of  April  1804  solemnly  ordained 
and  set  apart  to  said  ofiice  according  to  the  provision  of 
Chapter  XII  Form  of  Government  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  At  the  same  time  Ebenezer  Finley  (previously 
an  elder  in  Pennsylvania)  was  also  elected." 

''From  this  time,"  says  Br.  Backus,  "the  spiritual 
interests  of  the  Church  seem  to  have  gradually  improved — 
and  although  this  congregation  was  not  then  visited  by 
any  season  of  special  awakening  the  preparation  for  such 
a  blessing  may  be  clearly  traced." 

The  first  matter  that  came  up  before  the  session  after 
its  organization  was  a  charge  brought  by  one  of  its  members 
against  another  of  calumniating  and  otherwise  injuring 
the  former  and  his  family,  but  the  case  was  promptly 
dismissed  because  it  appeared  by  the  admission  of  the 
party  complaining  that  he  had  not  first  sought  a  recon- 
ciliation with  his  brother  privately  as  directed  by  our  Lord 
in  Matth.  18:  15. 


28  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  1811  an  organ  was  erected  in  the  church  by  permission 
of  the  committee  which  authorized  the  alteration  of  the 
gallery  necessary  for  its  accomodation.  This  organ  was 
not  bought  by  the  church  but  was  presented  by  individual 
members  of  the  congregation  who  also  undertook  to  employ 
an  organist  at  their  own  cost,  but  after  a  few  years  the  sal- 
ary of  the  organist  was  assumed  by  the  committee  as  part 
of  the  regular  congregational  expenses. 

The  introduction  of  an  organ  into  any  Presbyterian 
Congregation  for  the  first  time  was,  until  a  comparatively 
recent  period,  ordinarily  the  occasion  of  some  discord,  and 
while  the  experience  of  the  First  Church  formed  no  exception 
to  the  general  rule  the  dissatisfaction  was  not  great  and 
soon  passed  away,  although  one  or  two  valuable  families 
left  the  church.  Among  these  was  Mr.  James  McCulloch, 
who  on  his  departure  presented  to  the  Committee  a  vigorous 
and  elaborately  prepared  protest,  covering  six  closely 
written  pages  of  large  old-fashioned  letter  paper,  against 
"the  change  made  in  the  service  of  the  church  by  adding 
instrumental  music  to  the  worship  of  God,"  which  he  said 
constrained  him  to  perform  that  duty  in  the  association 
of  other  Christians,  and  to  abandon  the  pew  he  had  hitherto 
held  in  the  church  to  another. 

Prior  to  this  time  there  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
any  church  choir,  the  singing  being  always  led  by  a  precentor. 
In  December,  1766,  the  next  month  after  the  first  brick 
church  was  completed  the  Committee  authorized  two  of 
its  members  ''to  engage  Mr.  Lee,  our  present  Precentor, 
as  a  constant  performer  on  as  moderate  salary  as  they  can," 
and  on  the  following  March  these  gentlemen  reported  that 
Mr.  Lee's  terms  were  ten  pounds  per  annum  to  continue 


REYNOLDS  29 

as  precentor  in  the  church  but  they  had  not  engaged  him. 
The  Committee  took  no  further  action  at  that  time, 
probably  because  they  thought  ten  pounds  was  too  large  a 
salary  for  them  to  pay  Mr.  Lee  under  existing  circumstances. 
The  minutes  show  however  that  precentors  were  appointed 
from  time  to  time.  In  1775  Mr.  May  was  employed  at  a 
salary  of  six  pounds  per  annum,  and  in  1781  the  Committee 
accepted  an  offer  made  by  Mr.  Hand  Morison  to  act  as 
precentor  for  one  year  and  allowed  him  for  his  services 
a  seat  in  the  church  free  from  any  charge.  In  1803  Mr. 
Allen  was  engaged  to  act  as  leader  of  the  music  and  to  find 
two  persons  to  assist  him  in  the  bass  at  the  rate  of  $150  per 
annum  for  their  joint  services. 

In  1 8 14  James  Mosher,  Thomas  Finley,  David  Boisseau 
and  Dr.  Maxwell  McDowell  were  ordained  elders  and  on 
June  21  of  this  year  the  following  minute  was  entered  on 
the  sessional  record: 

''The  session  having  had  frequent  occasion  to  remark 
the  auspicious  bearing  of  meetings  for  social  prayer  upon 
the  religious  state  of  Presbyterian  as  well  as  other  con- 
gregations, Resolved,  that  it  is  expedient  to  attempt  the 
institution  and  maintenance  of  such  associations  and  that 
Dr.  Inglis  be  authorized  to  express  the  sense  of  the  session 
on  this  and  similiar  means  of  quickening  the  people  in 
religion." 

In  this  year  for  the  first  time  applicants  for  admission 
to  full  communicant  membership  of  the  church  appeared 
before  the  session  and  on  being  received  had  their  names 
recorded  on  the  church  rolls,  and  the  session  agreeably 
to  a  recommendation  of  the  presbytery  resolved  to  keep 
a  Register  of  Baptisms. 


30  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

From  May,  1815,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered 
four  times  a  year  instead  of  twice  as  had  been  formerly 
the  custom,  and  in  this  year  also  a  weekly  lecture  was 
instituted  being  conducted  by  the  pastor  on  every  Wednes- 
day evening  in  the  church,  there  being  no  lecture  or  ses- 
sion room  at  that  time.  About  the  same  time  Mrs.  Stephen 
WilHams  (wife  of  the  well  known  Presbyterian  City  Mis- 
sionary, being  then  a  member  of  St.  Peter's  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church),  having,  during  a  visit  to  Philadelphia, 
witnessed  the  happy  effects  of  Sabbath  Schools,  was  the 
means  of  introducing  them  into  Baltimore.  The  first  was 
commenced  by  the  ladies  of  St.  Peter's  Church  and  it  was 
soon  followed  by  one  under  the  care  of  the  ladies  of  the 
First  Church,  which  was  held  for  some  time  in  a  room  over 
the  engine  house  in  McClellan's  Alley,  and  with  it  was 
connected  a  weekly  meeting  for  social  prayer. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  session  held  February,  18 16,  resolu- 
tions were  adopted  to  the  following  effect: 

*^i.  That  from  the  success  that  had  attended  on  Prayer 
societies  it  was  incumbent  on  the  session  to  use  exertions 
to  institute  others  in  the  congregation. 

"2.  That  it  was  the  duty  of  the  session  to  visit  communi- 
cating members  of  the  congregation,  to  pray  with  them, 
and  to  exhort  them  to  set  a  pious  example  before  their 
families,  and  to  bring  them  up  in  the  fear,  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord. 

''3.  That  a  collection  be  taken  upon  the  first  Wednesday 
evening  of  every  month  for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the 
rent  and  other  incidental  expenses  of  the  church  then 
occupied  by  the  colored  people  under  the  charge  of  the 
session." 


REYNOLDS  3I 

These  resolutions  figured  prominently  in  a  curious 
proceeding  instituted  before  the  session  in  Nov.  i,  1816 
which  is  interesting  as  the  first  judicial  business  appearing 
on  its  records  since  the  case  brought  before  it  as  already 
stated  when  it  first  met  in  1804.  One  of  its  members,  Mr. 
David  W.  Boisseau,  caused  a  brother  elder,  Col.  James 
Mosher,  to  be  cited  before  the  session  upon  the  following 
charges: 

1.  A  breach  of  the  Fourth  Commandment  by  unneces- 
sarily spending  the  Sabbath  at  Mr.  D.  A.  Smith's  farm. 

2.  Treating  with  neglect  the  resolutions  of  the  session 
to  make  exertions  in  favor  of  prayer  meetings  through  the 
congregation. 

3.  Neglect  of  family  worship. 

The  session  decided  the  last  two  charges  imputed  matters 
not  cognizable  by  it,  and  therefore  dismissed  them,  but  held 
that  the  charge  of  profanation  of  the  Sabbath  was  one 
properly  within  its  jurisdiction  and  with  the  assent  of 
the  accused  proceeded  to  hear  testimony  in  relation  to  it. 
The  accused  admitted  that  he  had  spent  the  Sabbath  at 
Mr.  Smith's  farm  as  stated,  but  gave  his  reasons  for  so 
doing,  which  were  so  satisfactory  to  the  session  that  it  at 
once  decided  the  charge  of  violating  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment to  be  not  sustained.  Mr.  Boisseau  appealed  to  the 
presbytery  but  failed  to  prosecute  the  appeal,  and  Colonel 
Mosher  and  Dr.  Maxwell  McDowell  resigned  from  the 
session  on  January  i,  181 7. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  same  year  when  the  spiritual 
prospects  of  the  church  were  becoming  increasingly  promising 
good  Dr.  IngHs  became  entangled  in  the  same  snare  of  the 
adversary  which  had  brought  that  other  preacher  of  right- 


3  2  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

eousness,  old  Father  Noah,  into  trouble  in  his  generation — 
an  imprudent  over-indulgence  in  the  fruit  of  the  vine.  In 
order  to  understand  the  circumstances  of  the  case  it  is 
necessary  to  remember  that  the  drinking  customs  of  that 
day,  even  among  the  best  of  people,  were  widely  different 
from  those  which  now  prevail  now  among  us.  The  use  of 
wine,  spirits  or  malt  Kquors  at  dinner  was  well-nigh 
universal  among  all  classes,  the  clergy  forming  no  exception 
to  the  general  rule.  If  a  man  wished  to  pay  a  graceful 
compliment  to  his  minister  it  was  understood  that  the  most 
approved  method  of  showing  appreciation  was  to  send  him 
five  or  ten  gallons  of  fine  old  Madeira.  And  whenever  the 
minister  made  a  pastoral  call  it  was  the  invariable  custom 
to  set  before  him  a  cake  with  wine  or  spirits,  and  offense 
was  liable  to  be  taken  whenever  he  failed  to  partake  of 
them.  One  pastor — not  connected  with  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  however — is  said  to  have  been  gifted  with 
an  unusually  strong  head  and  to  have  made  it  his  boast 
that  he  could  pay  more  pastoral  calls  than  any  other  clergy- 
man in  the  state  without  exhibiting  any  perceptible  effects 
therefrom  in  either  his  walk  or  his  conversation. 

On  Wednesday  evening  December  3,  181 7,  at  the  usual 
weekly  prayer  meeting  Dr.  Inglis  conducted  the  services 
but  they  had  not  progressed  far  before  it  became  painfully 
apparent  that  whether  the  doctor  had  been  dining  with  one 
of  his  parishioners  and  had  sat  too  long  at  the  table,  or 
whether  he  had  been  engaged  in  paying  a  greater  number 
of  pastoral  calls  than  usual  and  was  afterwards  more  or 
less  affected  by  his  proximity  to  the  hot  stove  in  the  church, 
he  was  certainly  not  entirely  himself  but  was  plainly  more 
or  less   under   the   influence   of   alcohol.     This   naturally 


REYNOLDS  33 

became  the  subject  of  gossip  and  the  doctor,  deeply  grieved 
and  mortified  as  well  as  repentant,  requested  the  presbytery 
at  its  next  meeting  which  was  held  at  Alexandria,  Virginia, 
on  December  15  to  dissolve  his  pastoral  relation  with  the 
First  Church,  without  assigning  any  reason  therefor.  The 
presbytery  resolved  that,  if  the  congregation,  on  being 
informed  thereof  assented,  the  request  be  granted,  but,  in 
case  the  congregation  did  not  agree,  that  it  be  directed  to 
appoint  commissioners  to  appear  before  the  next  meeting 
and  show  cause  why  the  request  should  not  be  granted. 
Accordingly  Dr.  IngHs  on  Sunday,  December  28,  called  a 
congregational  meeting  for  the  following  day  to  take  ac- 
tion on  his  application.  The  meeting  having  assembled  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  three  persons  to  wait  on  Dr.  Inglis 
and  inquire  the  reasons  for  his  request,  and  then  adjourned 
over  to  Thursday,  January  i,  18 18.  The  committee  then 
reported  that  they  had  had  several  interviews  with  Dr. 
IngHs  and  if  the  congregation  wished  to  retain  him  they 
did  not  doubt  but  that  he  would  remain  with  them.  The 
question  as  to  granting  Dr.  Inghs'  request  was  then  put 
and  negatived  and  he  was  requested  to  withdraw  his 
resignation  by  a  unanimous  vote. 

The  meeting  did  not  however  then  adjourn,  but  Mr.  John 
Purviance,  one  of  the  committee  who  had  waited  on  Dr. 
IngHs,  immediately  moved  that  they  at  once  proceed  to 
the  election  of  three  elders  of  this  congregation,  and  that 
the  elders  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  shall  hereafter 
be  elected  annually  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  and  continue 
to  exercise  the  duties  enjoined  on  them  by  the  Form  of 
Government  and  DiscipHne  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
for  one  year  and  until  a  new  election  shall  take  place,  and 


34  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

if  any  vacancy  shall  happen  by  death,  resignation  or  other- 
wise, the  remaining  elders  for  the  time  being  may  supply 
the  vacancy.  This  resolution  was  adopted  with  but  a  single 
dissenting  vote  after  an  amendment  making  the  number 
of  elders  to  be  elected  five  instead  of  three.  The  meeting 
then  proceeded  to  elect  them  and  Messrs.  Robert  Gilmor 
Jr.,  WilHam  Taylor,  James  Mosher,  Thomas  Finley  and 
John  McKean  were  chosen.  Of  these  the  two  last,  who 
were  already  acting  elders,  refused  to  accept  the  new 
election,  and  Mr.  Robert  Gilmor,  Jr.,  one  of  the  two  elected 
to  the  office  for  the  first  time,  declined  to  serve,  which  left 
Colonel  Mosher,  who  had  been  an  elder  before  but  had 
resigned  in  1817,  and  Mr.  WilHam  Taylor,  the  other  newly 
elected  elder,  the  only  members  of  the  session. 

The  Committee  appointed  to  confer  with  Dr.  Inglis  were 
then  requested  to  inform  him  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
meeting,  which  they  did  at  once  and  reported  that  he  had 
consented  to  continue  to  act  as  their  pastor. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  presbytery  held  May  12,  18 18,  at 
Fredericktown,  a  letter  dated  May  11  from  David  W. 
Boisseau  an  elder  of  the  First  Church,  was  laid  before  the 
presbytery,  charging  Rev.  James  Inglis,  D.D.,  with  habitual 
intoxication,  but  more  especially  with  being  intoxicated  on 
the  night  of  Wednesday  December  3, 181 7,  at  a  prayer  meet- 
ing then  conducted  by  him,  and  named  as  witnesses  eleven 
persons  who  were  then  present.  Dr.  IngHs  rose  in  his 
place  and  acknowledged  the  charge  to  be  true,  but  at  the 
same  time  declared  that  he  beheved  he  had  lately  broken 
off  every  act  which  could  contradict  the  assurance  now 
made  of  his  deep  humility  and  determination  for  the 
future  to  avoid  offensive  conduct.     The  matter  was  then 


REYNOLDS  35 

laid  over  until  the  next  meeting  of  presbytery.  Other  charges 
were  presented  against  Dr.  Inglis  at  the  same  meeting  by 
Stewart  Brown,  John  Finley,  David  W.  Boisseau  and  James 
McKean,  the  four  elders  who  were  ejected  from  office  by 
the  action  of  the  meeting  of  January  i,  1818,  already 
referred  to.     These  additional  charges  were: 

1.  Anti-Presbyterian  conduct  in  giving  sanction  to  the 
discharge  of  them  as  elders  of  this  church  without  any 
charge  of  misconduct  being  either  proved  or  alleged  against 
them. 

2.  A  breach  of  ministerial  duty  in  re-ordaining  an  elder 
on  January  11,  18 18,  whom  he  had  previously  ordained 
and  who  had  acted  in  that  capacity  anterior  to  his  second 
ordination. 

The  presbytery  adjourned  over  to  June  11  when  it  met 
at  Baltimore  and  proceeded  with  the  trial  of  the  charges 
against  Dr.  Inglis. 

The  charge  of  giving  sanction  to  the  discharge  of  his 
elders  was  dismissed  as  not  supported  by  proof,  and  a 
verdict  of  not  guilty  rendered  upon  that  of  re-ordaining  an 
elder.  The  charge  of  intoxication  was  then  taken  up  and 
evidence  heard  of  it.  This  included  a  letter  from  Dr.  Inglis 
denying  that  the  statement  made  by  him  before  the  presby- 
tery at  its  last  meeting  was  a  confession  of  his  having  been 
guilty  of  habitual  intoxication  which  he  emphatically 
repudiated,  and  explaining  that  it  referred  solely  to  the 
single  occurrence  of  December  3.  There  was  also  a  protest 
dated  June  3,  18 18,  signed  by  86  members  and  pew-holders 
of  the  First  Church  which  declared  that  ''the  prosecutor 
at  the  time  of  making  the  accusation  was  well  aware  that 
the  unhappy  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  it  had  been 


36  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

deeply  deplored  by  the  accused  who  had  made  all  the  repa- 
ration for  the  injury  done  to  the  sacred  character  in  public 
estimation  that  his  congregation  had  the  right  to  expect, 
and  had  manifested  that  profound  repentance  which  the  pre- 
cepts of  our  Di\ine  rehgion  require,  and  which  is  the  highest 
ornament  of  the  Christian  profession,"  and  it  then  went  on 
to  express  emotions  of  surprise  and  indignation  at  an  accu- 
sation brought  forward  at  this  period  of  time  ''without  the 
sKghtest  sanction  of  the  congregation  by  a  person,  a  com- 
parative stranger  among  them  and  usurping  as  they  humbly 
conceived  an  unwarrantable  right  to  interfere  in  the  affairs 
of  the  church." 

There  was  also  presented  to  the  presbytery  a  letter  with- 
out date  from  Mr.  Boisseau  to  Dr.  Inglis  in  which  he 
complained  of  the  removal  of  the  doctor's  son  from  his 
school  without  cause  as  ''an  additional  Hnk  in  the  chain  of 
unmanly  persecution  commenced  some  time  since,  a  perse- 
cution which  may  lead  to  the  disclosure  of  facts  not  very 
pleasant  to  yourself  or  family,"  and  concluded,  "For  your 
family's  sake  I  advise  you  to  beware." 

From  all  this  it  is  apparent  that  the  congregation  generally 
were  disposed  to  look  upon  the  occurrence  at  the  prayer  meet- 
ing in  the  Hght  of  an  unfortunate  accident,  liable  to  happen 
to  any  gentleman,  though  of  such  a  character  that  in  view 
of  the  scandal  to  which  it  gave  rise  in  the  case  of  a  minister, 
it  imposed  upon  him  the  duty  of  thereafter  taking  every 
precaution  to  prevent  the  possibihty  of  its  recurrence,  and 
that  they  regarded  the  prosecution  of  the  matter  before 
the  presbytery  more  than  four  months  after  it  had  been 
amicably  settled  between  the  doctor  and  his  congregation 
as  unjustifiable,  and  dictated  wholly  by  personal  malice 


REYNOLDS  3  7 

and  ill  will  on  the  part  of  the  prosecutor.  As  Dr.  Backus 
remarks,  'Hhis  occurrence  which  cast  a  shade  over  the  last 
days  of  Dr.  Inglis'  ministry  never  interrupted  for  a  moment 
the  affection  of  his  congregation." 

The  members  of  the  presbytery  while  apparently  unwill- 
ing fully  to  endorse  these  views  by  their  official  action  seem 
nevertheless  to  have  personally  sympathized  with  them  to 
some  extent,  for  while  excluding  Mr.  Boisseau's  letter  from 
evidence  as  irrevelant  they  nevertheless  permitted  it  to  be 
spread  upon  their  minutes,  and  finally  disposed  of  the  case 
by  directing  that  Dr.  Inglis  "be  called  before  the  presbytery 
and  receive  an  admonition  from  the  Moderator  for  his 
aberration  from  the  rule  of  rectitude,  and  that  he  submit  to 
an  exhortation  to  proceed  in  the  exercise  of  his  ministerial 
office  with  renewed  zeal  and  unusual  circumspection  and 
dependence  on  his  God  and  Saviour" — which  was  accord- 
ingly done  on  June  12,  18 18.  And  we  find  that  he  w^as 
elected  moderator  of  the  presbytery  within  a  year. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  held  October  27,  1818,  the 
presbytery  took  up  the  question  as  to  what  should  be  done 
in  relation  to  the  election  of  elders  by  the  Congregation 
of  the  First  Church  on  January  i  of  that  year,  and  referred 
the  papers  to  the  Synod,  which  sent  them  back  to  the 
presbytery  with  instructions  to  prosecute  the  business  as 
speedily  as  possible.  At  a  meeting  held  at  Baltimore  on 
May  II,  1819,  of  which  Dr.  Inglis  was  Moderator,  the 
Congregation  of  the  First  Church  having  been  duly  cited 
appeared  by  Commissioners,  and  the  presbytery  after  a  full 
hearing  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  ''said  congregation 
of  the  city  of  Baltimore  have  not  in  the  opinion  of  Pres- 
bytery from  any  evidence  now  before  them  either  violated 


38  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

or  exceeded  the  liberty  which  is  given  to  them  or  to  all 
churches  or  congregations  by  the  book  of  Discipline  and 
Form  of  Government  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  except 
in  attempting  to  give  authority  to  the  Elders  to  supply  any 
vacancy  which  might  occur  among  them."  But  against 
this  decision  a  protest  was  entered. 

When  the  minutes  of  the  presbytery  were  reviewed  by 
the  Synod  on  October  29, 1819,  this  decision  was  disapproved 
as  warranting  a  proceeding  "at  variance  with  the  uniform 
usage  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  contrary  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Form  of  Government  fairly  interpreted 
and  correctly  understood."  No  further  action  seems  to 
have  been  taken  thereafter  by  anybody  upon  the  matter, 
but  the  congregation  never  again  undertook  to  elect  elders 
to  serve  for  a  yearly  term,  and  those  already  elected 
continued  to  serve  without  reelection.  The  question  thus 
raised  was  finally  disposed  of  by  the  amendment  of  the 
form  of  Government  adopted  May,  1875,  making  it  optional 
for  any  congregation  to  elect  its  elders  to  serve  for  a  lim- 
ited time  of  not  less  than  three  years. 

In  the  year  18 18  the  parsonage  which  stood  on  Fayette 
Street  east  of  the  church  was  taken  down  in  order  to  open 
North  Street,  which  had  previously  been  an  alley,  and  a 
new  parsonage  was  built  in  the  rear  of  the  church  fronting 
on  North  Street  but  Dr.  Inglis  did  not  live  to  occupy  it 
for  he  died  suddenly  on  Sunday  morning,  August  15,  18 19. 

Of  him  Dr.  Backus  says:  "He  was  one  of  the  most  popular 
preachers  of  his  day."  Mr.  Jonathan  Meredith,  long  one  of 
our  leading  lawyers,  says:  "He  was  largely  gifted  with 
many  of  the  essential  gifts  of  oratorical  power,  his  voice 
was  full,  clear  and  capable  of  great  varieties  of  modulation. 


REYNOLDS  39 

His  enunciation  was  deliberate  and  distinct,  his  action 
subdued  but  graceful,  always  appropriate  and  seemingly 
unstudied.  His  whole  manner  was  eminently  dignified 
and  impressive.  He  was  accounted  a  sound  theologian, 
a  good  classical  scholar  and  familiar  with  the  best  English 
literature.  He  usually  preached  with  his  sermon  before 
him  but  did  not  confine  himself  to  it,  the  most  striking  and 
eloquent  passages  being  evidently  extemporaneous."  Dr. 
Backus  adds:  "His  style  was  exceedingly  concise,  but 
clear  and  eloquent.  Dr.  Dwight  spoke  of  him  to  his  class 
in  rhetoric  as  the  most  signal  instance  of  precision  in  style 
that  he  had  ever  met.  He  possessed  in  a  preeminent  degree 
the  talent  of  so  managing  his  voice  as  to  produce  the  most 
profound  impressions  with  the  simplest  sentences.  Those 
who  were  accustomed  to  hear  him  testify  that  no  adequate 
conception  can  be  found  of  the  efi'ect  of  his  preaching  from 
his  published  discourses.  Dr.  Sprague  represents  him  as 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  preachers  to  whom  he  had  ever 
listened.  Anecdotes  are  related  of  his  eloquence  that  seem 
almost  incredible.  In  private  intercourse  he  was  cheerful, 
affable  and  eminently  agreeable.  He  shone  in  conversation 
and  was  full  of  amusing  anecdotes.  In  the  sick  room  he 
was  extremely  tender  and  faithful,  and  peculiarly  appro- 
priate and  happy  in  devotional  exercises.  Such  indeed  was 
his  general  character,  such  his  power  of  attracting  and 
influencing  others,  that  the  devotion  of  his  people  amounted 
almost  to  idolatry." 

After  Dr.  Inglis's  death  the  pulpit  remained  vacant  for 
about  a  year.  During  this  time  the  attention  of  the 
congregation  had  been  directed  to  the  Rev.  Sylvester 
Larned,  Rev.  Matthew  Bruen  and  Rev.  William  Nevins, 


40  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

and  so  strong  were  the  predilections  of  the  respective 
friends  of  these  two  gentlemen  that  the  first  election  lasted 
two  days.  It  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Rev.  Mr.  Larned, 
then  recently  settled  in  New  Orleans,  who  although  much 
gratified  at  the  call  felt  constrained  by  a  sense  of  duty  to 
decline  it  and  retain  the  charge  he  had  already  assumed. 
At  the  second  election  Mr.  Nevins  was  chosen  by  a  large 
majority  and  he  accepted  and  came  to  Baltimore  in  October 
1820. 


CHAPTER  III 

DR.  NEVINS'S  PASTORATE  1820-1835 

Rev.  William  Nevins  was  born  in  Norwich,  Connecticut, 
October  17,  1777.  At  an  early  age  he  applied  himself  to 
commercial  pursuits,  but  soon  abandoned  them  for  a  liberal 
education  and  entered  Yale  college  where  he  became  hope- 
fully converted.  On  leaving  college  he  entered  the  Theo- 
logical seminary  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  and  after  a 
regular  course  of  study,  was  licensed  to  preach  the  gospel 
by  the  Association  of  New  London,  Connecticut,  in  Sep- 
tember 18 1 9.  He  labored  a  short  time  in  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, before  coming  to  Baltimore.  Dr.  Backus  character- 
izes the  period  of  his  ministry  as  one  of  gracious  revival. 
''The  rapid  growth,  the  unexampled  prosperity  of  Baltimore 
during  the  period  we  have  just  reviewed,  led,  as  has  often 
been  the  case,  to  that  excessive  banking  and  over  trading 
which  soon  involved  the  community  in  one  of  those  great 
commercial  revrdsions  which  spread  devastation  and 
distress  so  widely  over  the  land.  This  happened  in  18 18 
not  long  before  the  death  of  Dr.  IngHs.  The  value  of  real- 
estate  was  greatly  reduced  and  the  aspect  of  the  city  is 
said  to  have  given  evident  marks  of  decline.  This  no 
doubt  had  its  influence  in  the  wise  over-ruling  of  Divine 
Providence  as  we  have  seen  a  similar  state  of  things 
recently,  in  impressing  the  minds  of  men  with  a  sense  of 
the  vanity  of  the  world  and  the  importance  of  eternal 
interests,  and  thus  in  preparing  the  way  for  those  gracious 

41 


42  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

visitations  that  distinguished  the  period  we  are  now  con- 
sidering." 

The  consequences  of  that  commercial  revulsion  had  not 
entirely  passed  away  when  Dr.  Nevins  came  to  Baltimore 
in  October  1820.  During  the  first  year  of  his  ministry 
here,"  continues  Dr.  Backus,  ''there  was  nothing  remark- 
able in  the  results  of  his  labors.  Possessing  a  brilliant 
imagination,  a  sound  judgment,  a  refined  taste,  warm  affec- 
tions and  an  ardent  temperament  his  pulpit  performances 
attracted  general  admiration  and  proved  highly  gratifying 
to  an  intelligent  congregation.  In  his  social  intercourse 
there  was  a  frankness  and  guilelessness,  a  ready  sympathy 
with  others  that  rapidly  endeared  him  to  all  classes  of  his 
flock.  A  somewhat  variable  temperament  and  a  manner 
marked  by  great  simplicity,  playfulness  and  wit  led  some 
who  met  him  only  casually  at  this  time,  and  became 
subsequently  better  acquainted  with  him,  to  suppose  that 
his  religious  character  underwent  a  very  important  change 
after  the  first  few  years  of  his  ministry.  And,  unquestionably 
his  settlement  in  life,  increasing  years,  the  responsibilities 
of  so  important  a  charge,  and  above  all,  divine  grace 
gradually  sobered  his  feelings  and  led  to  a  more  rapid 
developement  of  his  religious  character.  But  those  who 
knew  him  most  intimately  at  an  earlier  period,  had  per- 
ceived from  the  first,  evidence  of  the  same  views  and  experi- 
ences that  characterized  him  at  the  later  period.  'No  one,' 
says  Dr.  Sprague,  'could  hear  him  pray  in  the  seminary, 
without  being  convinced  that  his  utterances  were  from  a 
heart  accustomed  alike  to  self-communion  and  godly 
sorrow.'  " 

A  curious  document  found  among  the  papers  of  Dr.  James 


REYNOLDS  43 

McHenry,a  member  of  the  committee  who  served  from  1810 
to  1 81 6,  whose  son  was  perhaps  the  most  intimate  personal 
friend  that  Dr.  Nevins  had  in  Baltimore,  strongly  corrobo- 
rates what  Dr.  Backus  says  about  that  side  of  his  person- 
ality, described  as  '^a  manner  marked  by  great  simplicity, 
playfulness  and  wit." 

The  paper  in  question  is  in  the  handwriting  of  Dr.  Mc- 
Henry's  son  and  seems  to  be  either  the  rough  draft  or  a 
copy  of  a  letter  intended  to  be  mailed  anonymously  to  Dr. 
Nevins  and  designed  as  a  piece  of  good  natured  satire  upon 
some  anonymous  criticisms  which  had  evidently  been  sent 
to  the  Doctor  in  all  seriousness  through  the  mails,  and 
which  had  been  shown  to  his  friend  McHenry  and  over 
which  they  had  probably  both  enjoyed  a  hearty  laugh. 
The  fact  that  the  letter  was  sent  by  such  an  intimate  friend 
as  McHenry  shows  how  confident  the  latter  must  have  been 
that  Dr.  Nevins  would  understand  and  take  it  in  good  part 
and  that  its  effect  would  be  to  amuse  and  not  to  wound 
him.     The  letter  is  as  follows: 

Sir: — In  exercising  the  manly,  fair  and  just  and  dignifying 
right  of  saying  what  I  please,  to  whom  I  please  and  under  any 
form  which  pleases  me,  I  cannot  indulge  you  with  an  apology  for 
occasioning  the  trouble  of  reading  this  letter.  In  fact,  having 
your  interest  solely  at  heart,  I  feel  irresistibly  urged  to  lay  before 
you  a  plain  statement  of  facts,  which  it  is  hoped,  will  greatly 
influence  your  future  behaviour.  You  have  lately  received  an 
anonymous  communication  on  the  subject  of  pastoral  conduct 
and  conversation.  Knowing  your  extreme  sensitiveness,  I  am 
satisfied  that  the  said  anonymous  letter  has  produced  the  desired 
effect,  and  its  influence  has  been  stronger  on  account  of  the 
irresponsibility  of  its  author.  Encouraged  by  his  success,  finding 
you  so  sensible  of  your  own  faults  and  so  willing  to  amend  them, 
and,  withal,  so  excitable  by  anything  without  a  name,  I  have 
felt  it  to  be  my  duty,  or  rather  my  pleasure,  to  lay  before  you  a 


44  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

short  list  of  a  very  few  of  the  excessively  great  and  numerous 
grievances  under  which  we  have  all  been  suffering  since  your 
arrival  amongst  us.  Weigh  them  well,  relieve  us  from  them,  or 
cease  to  hope  for  a  full  congregation.  For  this  is  the  alternative, 
imless  indeed  you  succeed  in  making  us  in  ail  things  just  as  you 
are  yourself.     We  would  much  rather  make  you  like  one  of  us. 

But  to  proceed  to  the  important  business  in  hand.  In  the 
first  place,  neither  of  your  predecessors  ever  ascended  the  pulpit 
by  the  stairs  which  you  most  vexatiously  and  perseveringly  use, 
but  always  mounted  the  E.  flight.  It  does  not  matter  at  all  that 
there  were  then  two  gates  as  well  as  doors  to  the  church  and  that 
the  parsonage  house  was  on  the  east  of  the  eastern  gate.  This 
contravention  of  established  custom  evinces  on  your  part,  a 
spirit  of  innovation  and  a  virtual  condemnation  of  the  foimders 
of  our  church,  by  a  refusal  to  vralk  in  their  footsteps.  Secondly, 
we  are  at  the  expense  of  furnishing  all  the  pulpit  decorating,  it 
would  be  becoming  in  you  to  consider  this  and  avoid  such  con- 
tinual pounding,  whilst  in  the  heat  and  fury  of  discourse,  as 
necessarily  wears  the  napping  off.  Under  this  head  I  would  also 
condemn  the  unnatural  elevation  of  your  head,  in  your  fervent 
moods,  when  the  features  are  distorted  horribly,  and  the  throat 
and  windpipe  so  contracted  that  the  hottest  words  can  scarcely 
burn  their  way  out.  That  handkerchief,  besides,  gives  you  and 
us  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  uneasiness,  I  think  you  had  better 
wipe  your  face  and  blow  your  nose  at  home,  or  let  the  sexton 
stand  by  to  hold  this  part  of  your  sermon.  Duplicates  of  your 
slip  of  notes,  would  be  desirable,  for  then  Mr.  Meredith's  little 
son  would  not  have  the  trouble  of  picking  them  up  so  often. 
Besides  he  may  be  absent  from  Church  Sometimes,  and  then  it 
would  be  very  unseemly  undignified  in  you  to  leave  the  P.  to  pick 
up  a  scrap  of  paper. 

You  have  no  right  to  object  to  any  attitude  which  may  be  pre- 
ferred by  the  several  members  of  your  Cong.  Immemorial  usage 
has  established  the  pri\H[lege  of  the  people  to  stand,  sit,  loll, 
lounge,  taDc,  laugh  and  sleep  during  service.  My  advice,  on  this 
subject,  is  that  you  preach  very  short  sermons,  say  15  minutes; 
for  time  must  be  given  to  all  to  remark  upon  the  occurrences  of 
the  day  and  past  week,  the  changes  which  fashion  has  brought 
about,  the  good  and  bad  bargains  made  and  perhaps  to  drive  one  if 
opportunity  permits,  the  new  lamps,  the  last  prayer  meeting,  etc. 


REYNOLDS  45 

Now  not  more  than  ten  minutes  will  be  required  for  this  part 
of  divine  service;  five,  of  course  will  be  left  for  the  preacher, 
during  v/hich  he  ought  to  be  very  active  and  interesting,  or  else 
never  complam  of  the  people  holding  down  their  heads.  Why, 
sir,  within  the  recollection  of  many  of  us,  in  this  very  church, 
after  the  text  and  division  of  the  discourse,  there  were  always 
more  heads  do\\Ti  than  up.  Five  mmutes  are  a  very  long  time, 
sir,  particularly  if  the  week  has  been  a  busy  one.  Many  of  us 
are  up  late  at  balls,  plays,  cards  etc.,  and  find  a  little  slumber, 
induced  by  a  well  kept  up  monotony  of  sounds,  greatly  refreshing. 
The  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  rest  to  all,  and  this  rest  to  which  your 
people  have  the  right,  should  not  be  invaded  by  any  loud  and 
harsh  noises,  by  suddenly  stopping  to  take  a  drink  of  water,  (I 
suppose  it  is  water  under  your  pulpit,)  or  examine  your  notes, 
or  by  talking  too  seriously  about  sin,  repentance,  or  damnation 
and  the  things  of  another  life,  with  which,  having  a  great  deal 
to  do  here,  we  do  not  wish  to  concern  ourselves.  Those  of 
my  opinion  constitute  the  great  majority  of  your  congregation. 
You  are  employed  and  are  paid,  sir,  by  the  majority  who  have 
the  right  to  dictate  to  you  and  are  determined  to  so  do,  since 
they  have  found  you  willing  to  Usten;  and  they  expect  to  be 
treated  according  to  custom  with  dainties  and  luxuries,  leaving 
the  loaves  and  fishes,  the  sackcloth  and  ashes  to  the  more  humble 
minority.  We  shall  be  always  glad  to  see  you  at  our  houses,  to 
crack  a  bottle  or  toss  a  bumper,  but  dont  come  there  preaching. 
You  may  carry  your  song  and  sanctity  to  the  poor  minority,  for 
this  we  are  not  used  to,  your  business  is  to  please  Man,  and  you 
are  to  try  to  please  everybody.  You  must  make  yourself  a  very 
Proteus. 

These  few  hints  are  thrown  out  for  your  good.  If  they  be 
taken  and  some  amendment  follow  them,  the  list  shall  be  continued 
from  time  to  time  until  a  new  leaf  is  turned  over  by  you.  I 
shall  then  brag  most  vahantly  of  the  hand  which  I  had  in  the 
reformation  of  my  Pastor. 

No.  I  of  a  series  of  friendly  epistles. 

M. 

This  is  interesting  as  showing  that  more  than  ninety 
years  ago  there  were  to  be  found  in  the  First  Church  some 
good  people  so  intensely  conservative  in  regard  to  every 


46  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

thing  connected  with  its  accustomed  manner  of  conducting 
services  on  the  Lord's  Day,  that  they  were  incKned  to 
resent  ahnost  as  an  act  of  heresy  anything  resembhng  the 
slightest  deviation  by  their  new  minister  from  the  ways 
and  manner  of  his  predecessors  even  in  the  most  insigni- 
ficant particulars,  and  to  make  it  a  subject  for  serious 
complaint  and  criticism  to  him,  and  it  is  also  gratifying  to 
know  that  while  Dr.  Nevins'  sense  of  humor  could  not  fail 
to  show  him  the  utter  absurdity  of  many  of  these  criticisms, 
he  was  nevertheless  incHned  to  receive  them  in  a  spirit 
of  good  natured  toleration  and  amusement. 

It  is  not  of  course  to  be  supposed  that  any  criticisms 
actually  made  in  the  letters  seriously  sent  to  Dr.  Ne\dns 
were  quite  as  absurd  as  those  in  Mr.  McHenry's  letter, 
but  there  is  probably  little  doubt  that  some  of  them  bore 
a  strong  likeness  at  least  to  the  specimens  therein  collected. 

It  may  also  be  added  that  there  is  good  reason  for  beHeve 
that  on  more  than  one  occasion  complaints  and  remon- 
strances have  been  made  both  orally  and  in  writing  to 
certain  of  Dr.  Nevins's  successors  in  regard  to  the  intro- 
duction of  novelties  into  the  church  and  that  while  these 
remonstrances  have  not  always  prevailed,  they  have  nev- 
ertheless been  generally  received  in  a  spirit  of  becoming 
meekness  and  have  been  given  due  consideration  and 
weight. 

As  already  stated,  the  effect  of  the  election  of  new  elders 
on  January  i,  1818,  was  to  reduce  the  session  to  two  elders, 
Col.  James  Mosher  and  Mr.  Wm.  Taylor.  In  18 19  Mr. 
James  Delacroix  was  elected  but  he  served  only  until  1822, 
from  which  time  Colonel  Mosher  and  Mr.  Taylor  continued 
the  only  elders  down  to  1829,  when  Dr.  Maxwell  McDowell, 


REYNOLDS  47 

who  had  resigned  in  1817,  and  Mr.  George  Morris,  pre- 
viously an  elder  in  one  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  in 
Philadelphia,  were  elected.  Mr.  Taylor  resigned  the  same 
year  and  died  shortly  afterwards. 

Dr.  Nevins  early  in  his  ministry  revived  the  weekly  lecture 
and  prayer  meeting  which  were  discontinued  about  the 
time  of  Dr.  Inglis's  death  and  also  arranged  more  private 
meetings  for  special  prayer.  The  lecture  room  was  erected 
and  the  Sabbath  school  removed  to  it.  In  18 19  the  Third 
Presbyterian  Church  was  organized  in  Baltimore  and 
enjoyed  the  ministrations  of  pastors  who,  if  not  always 
judicious  in  the  measures  they  employed,  had  yet  conceived 
a  strong  desire  to  promote  a  true  revival  of  religion,  such 
as  about  this  time  began  to  be  enjoyed  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  In  the  District  of  Columbia  which  was 
embraced  in  the  presbytery  of  Baltimore,  the  churches 
seem  to  have  greatly  awakened.  In  the  spring  of  1825, 
Dr.  John  Breckenridge  became  the  pastor  of  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  after  a  short  time  united  with 
Dr.  Nevins  in  establishing  a  Bible  Class  embracing  a  large 
number  of  young  man  of  both  congregations,  most  of  whom 
subsequently  became  subjects  of  the  revival  in  1827. 

In  March  1824  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Church  appointed  the  Rev.  Mr.  Summerfield  as  a  Mission- 
ary in  Baltimore  where  he  labored  during  the  winter  of 
1824-25  and  produced  a  profound  sensation.  With  this 
memorable  man  Mr.  Nevins  formed  a  close  intimacy  which 
he  ever  afterwards  spoke  of  as  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of 
his  life.  About  this  time  his  mind  became  deeply  exercised 
on  the  subject  of  baptizing  children  whose  parents  did 
not  profess  saving  faith  in  Christ.     After  careful  examina- 


48  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

tion  and  prayer  he  became  persuaded  that  such  administra- 
tion of  the  ordinance  was  unmeaning  and  unauthorized,  and 
at  once  determined  to  practice  no  longer  what  has  been 
styled  the  lax  plan.  In  coming  to  this  conclusion  he 
clearly  foresaw  that  it  would  produce  no  little  agitation  in 
his  congregation,  and  he  even  apprehended  that  it  might 
lead  to  a  dissolution  of  the  pastoral  relation,  but  having 
made  up  his  mind  he  fearlessly  announced  his  intentions. 
It  was  soon  apparent  however  that  he  was  sustained  by 
a  large  majority  of  the  congregation,  although  some  few 
left  the  church  on  this  account.  Dr.  Backus  considers  this 
worthy  of  notice  because  he  says  it  has  been  ascertained 
that  it  did  actually  produce  the  first  serious  impression 
upon  some  of  those  who  afterwards  became  subjects  of  the 
revival. 

''From  this  time,  too,"  he  continues,  "one  who  has 
carefully  examined  Dr.  Nevins's  manuscripts  testifies  that 
there  may  be  discovered  a  decided  increase  of  solemnity, 
directness,  pungency  and  unction  in  his  sermons.  And  no 
one  who  peruses  the  touching  entries  in  his  diary  can  fail  to 
observe  striking  evidences  of  this  change." 

Dr.  Backus  relates  the  story  of  the  great  revival  which 
constituted  the  most  important  event  of  Dr.  Nevins's  min- 
istry, as  follows: 

"Such  was  the  state  of  things  on  Sunday,  March  7,  1827. 
There  was  no  expectation  beyond  what  is  impHed  in  an 
ardent  longing  for  the  blessing.  There  had  been  no  attempt 
to  get  up  a  revival,  but  a  simple  waiting  upon  God — upon 
Him  only.  That  morning  Mr.  Nevins  preached  from  the 
text,  'Now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.' 
The  sermon,  which  is  still  preserved,  is  plain,   practical 


REYNOLDS  49 

and  pungent:  but  not  at  all  remarkable.  It  is  not,  indeed, 
equal  in  power  and  directness  to  many  of  his  other  dis- 
courses. He  was  not  himself  conscious  of  anything  special 
in  its  delivery.  He  did  not  even  discover  anything  unusual 
in  the  appearance  of  the  congregation.  But  it  was  accom- 
panied with  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  with 
power.  In  the  interval  between  the  morning  and  after- 
noon services,  the  older  and  more  experienced  teachers  in 
the  Sabbath  School  were  surprised  to  find  a  number  of  the 
younger  teachers  and  of  the  more  advanced  scholars,  who 
were  not  professors  of  religion,  in  the  deepest  anxiety 
respecting  their  salvation,  so  much  so  that  it  entirely 
interrupted  the  regular  proceedings  of  the  school.  At  the 
same  time  several  members  of  the  congregation  visited  Mr. 
Nevins  at  his  home,  in  a  similar  state  of  feehng.  The  next 
day  and  throughout  the  week,  wherever  he  went,  he  found 
the  deepest  tenderness  and  anxiety.  Whole  families  were 
impressed  by  they  knew  not  what.  He  at  once  invited  all 
such  to  meet  him  at  his  residence  on  Monday  evening. 
And  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  the  spirit  of  inquiry  had 
so  spread  that  as  many  as  seventy  or  eighty  were  found 
in  attendance  upon  these  meetings  for  council  and  instruc- 
tion, some  in  overwhelming  distress. 

"As  the  immediate  result  of  this  gracious  outpouring,  more 
than  two  hundred  persons  united  with  the  two  churches. 
Quite  a  number  became  most  useful — some  of  them  dis- 
tinguished ministers  of  the  Gospel.  A  large  portion  of  the 
young  men  have  subsequently  become  officers  in  the  various 
churches  now  existing.  And  others  have  ever  been  among 
the  most  active,  zealous  and  useful  of  our  church  members. 
Nor  was  the  influence  of  this  revival  limited  to  these  more 


50  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

palpable  and  recorded  manifestations.  It  infused  fresh 
life  into  the  churches,  animated  and  encouraged  the 
ministers  and  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  cause  such  as  it 
never  before  received.  Sunday  Schools,  Prayer  Meetings 
and  Tract  Visitations  were  estabhshed  in  various  parts  of 
the  city.  The  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  was  the  result 
of  one  of  these  enterprises.  Another  was  established  at 
Crook's  factory  to  which  Mr.  Musgrave  received  a  call 
that  resulted  in  the  useful  settlement  in  the  Third  Church. 
And  altogether  an  amount  of  good  was  accompKshed  that 
will  never  fully  be  estimated  this  side  of  eternity.  Dr. 
Nevins  testified  on  his  dying  bed,  six  years  afterwards, 
that  he  had  seen  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  any  who  had 
come  into  the  church  at  that  time.  From  that  period,  as 
his  diary  shows,  his  constant  anxiety  was  to  labor — agonize 
as  he  says, — for  a  renewal  of  the  work.  It  manifestly 
produced  in  him  a  deeper  sense  of  dependence  upon  the 
Holy  Spirit,  confidence  in  the  Divine  power  and  grace, 
and  desire  to  be  taught  and  guided  in  his  ministry  from 
above.  When  preaching  his  tenth  anniversary  sermon  he 
mentioned  that  two  hundred  and  sixty  had  joined  the 
church  during  his  ministry  chiefly,  as  he  thought,  through 
this  revival.  In  183 1,  the  First  Church  enjoyed  a  similar 
season  though  neither  so  marked  nor  extensive." 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  Dr.  Nevins's  health  began 
to  decHne.  In  1832  he  had  an  attack  of  biHous  fever 
which  laid  him  aside  for  more  than  two  months,  and  in 
1834  he  was  again  arrested  by  disease.  Incessant  labor 
produced  symptoms  of  bronchitis,  he  lost  his  voice  and 
was  disabled  during  the  whole  summer.  Relaxation  and 
travel  however  had  apparently  recruited  his  wasted  strength 


REYNOLDS  5 I 

when  the  sudden  death  of  his  beloved  wife  from  cholera  in 
November,  together  with  that  of  his  child,  again  prostrated 
him  in  sickness  and  prepared  him  for  a  premature  grave. 
He  preached  his  last  sermon  on  New  Year's  Day  1835  and 
soon  after  sailed  for  the  West  Indies  where  he  passed  the 
winter  and  spring,  but  without  the  benefit  anticipated  by 
his  friends;  he  returned  only  to  struggle  patiently  through 
the  summer,  and  on  September  14,  1835,  breathed  his  last. 
During  the  year  1834  and  in  January  and  February  1835 
while  he  was  prevented  from  preaching  by  sickness,  he 
employed  his  time  writing  the  articles  for  the  New  York 
Observer  over  the  finals  of  his  name,  M.  S.,  which  were  also 
printed  in  book  form  after  his  death  by  the  American  Tract 
Society,  under  the  title  of  ^'Nevins'  Practical  Thoughts." 
and  '^Thoughts  on  Popery,"  being  volume  xiii  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Family  Library. 

In  the  year  1834  the  session  then  consisting  of  Colonel 
Mosher  and  Mr.  Morris  was  increased  by  the  election  of 
Messrs.  Da\dd  Courtenay,  John  N.  Brown  and  WilHam 
L.  Gill.  The  Democratic  National  Convention  which 
nominated  Mr.  Van  Buren  for  President  in  1835  met  in 
Baltimore  on  May  20  and  by  permission  of  the  Committee — 
Dr.  Nevins  then  being  in  the  West  Indies — held  its  sessions 
in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church.  In  consequence  thereof 
the  session  at  the  meeting  held  next  day  passed  a  resolution 
disapproving  the  use  of  the  church  building  for  other  than 
rehgious  purposes  and  proposing  to  the  Committee  that 
neither  body  should  in  future  authorize  the  use  of  the 
church  building  or  lecture  room  for  any  secular  purpose 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  other.  The  Committee 
apparently  regarded  this  resolution  as  a  reflection  upon  its 


52  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

course  in  allowing  a  political  assemblage  to  be  held  in  a 
church,  for  the  only  response  it  made  to  the  communication 
thus  addressed  to  it  by  the  session  was  to  return  it  without 
comment  and  note  the  circumstances  upon  its  minutes. 
It  is  beheved  however  that  the  church  building  was  never 
again  used  for  any  secular  purpose  until  after  it  had  been 
sold  and  dehvered  over  to  the  United  States  Government 
in  i860,  when  it  was  used  by  the  Constitutional  Union 
party  to  hold  the  convention  which  nominated  Messrs. 
John  Bell  and  Edward  Everett  as  candidates  for  President 
and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  It  was  thus 
probably  the  only  church  building  in  the  country  in  which 
two  presidential  nominating  conventions  were  ever  held. 


CHAPTER  IV 

DR.  BACKUS'S  PASTORATE,  1836-1875 

On  April  11,  1836,  Rev.  John  C.  Backus  was  elected  and 
on  September  15  of  the  same  year  installed  as  the  fourth 
pastor  of  the  church.  He  was  then  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
six.  Born  September  3,  18 10,  in  the  village  of  Weathersfield, 
Connecticut,  he  was  graduated  with  distinction  at  Yale  Col- 
lege in  183 1,  afterwards  entered  the  Theological  Seminary 
at  Princeton,  and  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery 
of  New  Brunswick.  In  December  1835  he  passed  through 
Baltimore  on  his  way  to  New  Orleans  in  the  service  of  the 
Board  of  Domestic  Missions  and  preached  in  the  church, 
as  he  tells  us,  without  the  slightest  expectation  of  ever 
seeing  the  place  again,  but  the  impression  he  then  made 
upon  the  congregation  was  so  favorable  as  to  result  in 
his  establishment  among  them  for  life.  He  entered  upon 
his  ofhce  overwhelmed  with  the  sense  of  its  responsiblilites 
and  full  of  misgivings  as  to  his  own  qualifications  for  the 
position,  but  Providence  had  in  store  for  him  a  greater  work 
than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors  and  a  wider  field  of 
labor  than  that  to  which  their  ministrations  had  been 
confined.  His  own  pastorate  he  afterwards  modestly  des- 
cribed as  ''a  period  more  particularly  characterized  by 
the  developement  of  those  activities  of  the  congregation 
in  the  departments  of  church  extension  and  general  Chris- 
tian benevolence  for  which  the  previous  periods  had  so 
remarkably  prepared  the  way."    Said  his  successor,  Dr.  Left- 

53 


54  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

wich,  forty-eight  years  afterwards,  when  conducting  the  fu- 
neral services  at  his  burial  which  by  a  singular  coincidence 
took  place  upon  the  anniversary  of  his  election  as  pastor, 
''In  consequence  of  the  material  prosperity  which  had 
flowed  upon  the  country  the  church  had  grown  much  in 
wealth.  In  consequence  of  the  recent  out-pouring  of  the 
Spirit  with  which  the  church  had  been  blessed  it  had  grown 
even  more  in  grace.  And  now  with  their  hands  laden  with 
God's  bounty  and  their  hearts  warmed  with  God's  love, 
the  mission,  the  evident  mission  of  this  people  was  to  extend 
at  home  and  abroad  the  Kingdom  of  the  Redeemer.  The 
situation  called  and  called  loudly  for  a  man  with  a  brain 
wise  enough  to  discern  and  a  hand  cunning  enough  to 
execute  liberal  things.  The  pastor-elect  responded  to  this 
call  as  face  to  face  in  water." 

As  illustrative  of  the  extreme  diffidence  with  which  Mr. 
Backus  assumed  the  charge  of  the  First  Church  the  fol- 
lowing extract  is  given  from  a  letter  dated  Philadelphia, 
June  lo,  1836,  written  by  him  to  the  committee  who  had 
presented  the  call  on  behalf  of  the  congregation.  After  stat- 
ing that  their  first  communication  had  been  placed  in  his 
hands  as  he  was  passing  through  Louisville  when  he  had 
barely  time  to  acknowledge  it,  and  that  he  had  hardly  been 
stationary  for  a  single  moment  since  he  says,  ''I  cannot 
tell  you  of  the  embarrassment  which  my  entertaining  for  a 
moment  a  call  to  so  responsible  a  post  has  occasioned  me. 
Whichever  way  I  decide  it  objections  and  difficulties  will 
have  to  be  encountered.  Previous  however  to  coming  to 
a  decision  I  desire  to  consult  you  with  reference  to  the  views 
of  the  congregation  on  some  points  which  will  be  involved  in 
it.  When  I  received  your  communication  informing  me  that 


REYNOLDS  55 

the  First  Church  in  Baltimore  had  elected  me  their  Pastor 
I  was  engaged  as  you  were  all  aware  in  the  Service  of  the 
Board  of  Missions.  My  connection  with  that  Institution 
I  find  cannot  honorably  be  dissolved  till  certain  objects 
proposed  in  my  agency  are  completed  and  an  opportunity 
afforded  for  obtaining  some  one  suitable  to  fill  the  post  I 
am  occupying.  Moreover  this  desultory  life  which  my 
duties  have  required  me  to  lead  since  ever  I  left  the 
Seminary,  has  unfitted  me  for  entering  immediately  upon 
the  duties  of  a  pastoral  charge  anywhere  much  less  such  a  one 
as  that  of  the  First  Church  in  Baltimore.  My  friends  too 
would  not  consider  it  prudent,  were  there  no  other  obsta- 
cles, in  me  to  enter  upon  so  responsible  and  arduous  duties 
in  your  city  in  mid-summer.  I  desire  to  inquire  there- 
fore whether  the  congregation  feel  that  their  interests  would 
suffer  to  any  extent  by  remaining  without  a  pastor  till 
such  a  time  in  the  fall  as  families  are  generally  accustomed 
to  return  to  their  city  residences,  and  whether  they  would 
be  satisfied  with  my  acceptance  of  their  call  at  that  time, 
provided  no  other  obstacle  were  in  the  way.  I  feel  desirous 
too  of  knowing  whether  the  congregation  are  so  far  aware 
of  my  circumstances  as  to  expect  me,  as  I  shall  be  under 
the  necessity  of  doing  if  I  accept  the  call,  to  devote  my 
time  almost  exclusively  for  a  year  or  two  to  study — reserving 
very  little  for  pastoral  visitation — and  moreover  to  seek 
much  assistance  from  other  ministers. 

*'In  considering  the  subject  I  have  felt  it  to  be  very 
important  to  have  my  mind  perfectly  at  ease  on  these 
points.  Had  I  sought  so  important  a  post,  it  might  perhaps 
seem  unreasonable  in  me  to  propose  such  inquiries.  But 
the  unanimity  and  kind  interest  with  which  the  call  after 


56  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

a  slight  acquaintance  has  been  urged  upon  me,  together 
with  the  confidence  which  I  feel  that  it  would  be  the  height 
of  presumption  in  me  to  enter  that  charge  without  some 
such  express  understanding,  have  induced  me  to  trouble 
you  with  this  communication." 

Twenty-three  years  later  Dr.  Backus  thus  describes  the 
committee  which  he  found  in  office  when  he  came  to  Balti- 
more: "When  the  present  pastor  entered  upon  the  duties 
of  this  charge  he  found  here  General  Samuel  Smith,  Messrs. 
Roland  Smith,  Robert  Gilmor,  James  Buchanan,  Alexander 
Fridge,  Alexander  McDonald,  Judges  Nesbit  and  Purviance, 
Messrs.  George  Brown,  James  Swan,  James  Cox,  James 
Armstrong,  James  Campbell  and  Robert  Purviance  who 
were  or  had  been  members  of  'the  committee' — all  now  among 
the  dead.  Barely  to  mention  their  names  is  a  sufiicient 
indication  of  the  character  and  position  of  the  church  in 
the  community,  as  they  were  distinguished  in  the  highest 
walks  of  civil,  political,  commercial  and  social  life,  with  a 
reputation  in  these  various  departments  that  gave  lustre 
not  only  to  the  congregation,  but  to  the  city  and  country. 
They  were  the  connecting  links  between  the  earliest  and  the 
latest  periods  of  the  congregation,  its  feeble  infancy  and  its 
matured  manhood. 

''Most  if  not  all  of  them  had  listened  to  every  pastor  the 
church  had  had  during  the  first  century  of  its  existence. 
They  had  borne  with  the  fathers  the  heat  and  burden  of  its 
struggling  into  existence.  They  had  ministered  by  their 
wealth  and  social  position  to  its  highest  outward  pros- 
perity. They  had  witnessed  its  doubtful  beginnings,  its 
fullest  strength  and  its  widest  influence.  It  would  afford 
me  the  greatest  satisfaction  to  be  able  to  dwell  more  mi- 


REYNOLDS  57 

nutely  upon  their  valuable  services.  As  however,  this  is 
impracticable  in  the  present  occasion,  I  may  be  permitted 
to  single  out  two  or  three  as  specimens,  not  indeed  to  claim 
for  them  any  preeminence  in  such  a  galaxy,  but  because  of 
their  pecuHar  relation  to  the  history  of  the  church. 

"  General  Samuel  Smith  was  then  the  oldest  living  '  com- 
mittee man'  or  trustee  of  the  congregation,  having  been 
elected  in  1782,  before  the  erection  of  the  building  we  are 
just  leaving.  He  was  a  true  representative  of  the  old 
school  of  soldiers,  politicians  and  merchants.  Having  dur- 
ing the  revolution  fought  bravely  the  battles  of  his  coun- 
try, and,  during  the  most  remarkable  period  of  the  rise 
and  progress  of  our  city,  attained  the  first  rank  among  her 
merchant  princes,  and  there  filled  the  highest  political  po- 
sitions in  the  city,  state  and  general  government.^  He 
brought  to  the  committee  an  intelligence,  energy,  resolution 
and  executive  ability  which,  while  they  rendered  him  the 
man  for  emergencies,  gave  him  the  most  commanding 
influence  and  control. 

"Mr.  Alexander  Fridge  was  elected  in  1816  in  the  place  of 
Mr.  William  Smith  who  had  held  the  office  since  the  organi- 
zation of  the  congregation  in  1761— a  period  of  more  than 
fifty  years — connecting  the  present  ministry  directly  by  a 
single  link  with  the  founders  of  the  church.  Mr.  Fridge 
came  here  in  time  to  be  identified  with  the  most  rapid 
growth  of  the  city,  and  the  congregation.     Liberally  edu- 

2  General  Smith  attained  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary army  and  distinguished  himself  by  his  defence  of  Fort  ]\lifflin.  He 
commanded  the  forces  which  defended  Baltimore  at  the  bombardment  of 
Fort  AIcHenry  in  181 5  and  was  twice  sent  to  the  Unites  States  Senate  from 
Maryland  in  1803  and  again  in  1822,  serving  for  two  successive  terms  on 
each  occasion. 


58  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

cated  in  a  university  of  the  Old  World  (in  the  class  with  Sir 
James  Macintosh  and  Robert  Hall)  with  sound  judgment 
and  unsullied  integrity  he  became  the  most  successful  mer- 
chant. I  found  him  just  recently  retired  from  active  busi- 
beat.  a  kinder,  more  unselfish  philanthropic  heart  never 
ness,  The  unfortunate  poor,  the  forlorn  stranger,  the  me- 
chanic out  of  employment,  the  young  man  starting  in  life 
without  patrons  or  friends,  always  found  in  him  an  active, 
liberal,  kind  friend,  counsellor  and  helper.  It  was  however, 
in  relation  to  the  benevolent  operations  of  the  church  that 
his  influence  at  that  particular  time  was  most  important. 
He  always  manifested  the  warmest  and  most  efficient 
interest  in  every  secular  and  reUgious  charity  and  never 
held  back  from  any  good  work.  His  character,  position 
and  influence  rendered  one  having  such  views  and  feelings 
a  most  important  instrument  in  forming  and  establishing 
that  benevolent  character,  for  which  the  congregation  has 
been  somewhat  distinguished. 

''One  other  name  must  be  mentioned  and  it  is  with  a 
tenderness  of  regret,  in  which  all  who  hear  me  will  sympa- 
thize, as  under  a  recent  aflfiction.  To  Mr.  George  Brown 
this  congregation  owes,  under  God,  more  perhaps  than  to 
any  other  person  for  its  present  position  in  this  community. 
With  his  name  its  reputation,  influence  and  usefulness 
are  most  intimately  identified.  Elected  a  member  of  'the 
committee'  in  1825,  he  served  the  congregation  in  this 
capacity  with  an  assiduity  and  faithfulness  second  to  no 
other  for  nearly  thirty-five  years.  During  this  last  period 
of  the  history  of  the  church  now  under  review  he  withdrew 
gradually  from  the  pressure  of  active  business,  and  gave 
himself  increasingly   to   the  promotion  of   those   various 


REYNOLDS  59 

benevolent  enterprises  demanded  by  our  own  age,  till  he 
came  to  be  almost  universally  looked  to  in  all  such  under- 
takings. He  not  only  contributed  liberally  of  his  wealth, 
but  also  by  his  counsels  and  active  services.  The  contri- 
butions of  this  church  to  our  Board  of  Missions,  Education, 
etc.,  as  well  as  to  the  other  benevolent  objects  of  the  day, 
were  largely  made  up  of  his  gifts.  And  in  the  work  of 
extending  the  church  in  this  city  and  vicinity,  as  well  as  in 
more  remote  parts  of  the  country,  to  no  other  person  have 
we  been  more  indebted.  The  new  church  edifice  especially 
will  be  always  identified  with  his  name.  Only  those  however 
who  were  associated  with  him  in  carrying  it  on,  will  ever 
know  how  much  it  owes  under  God  to  his  wisdom  and  pru- 
dence, his  untiring  vigilance,  his  important  encouragement 
and  timely  assistance.  Present  circumstances  prevent  me 
from  saying  more,  less  could  not  be  said  in  faithfulness  to 
this  review\" 

The  year  following  that  in  which  Dr.  Backus  entered 
upon  his  pastorate,  the  Presbyterian  Church,  after  a  pro- 
tracted controversy  between  what  were  styled  the  Old  and 
New  Schools,  was  divided  into  two  bodies.  Soon  after 
the  attention  of  the  churches  was  diverted  from  the  strife 
which  had  agitated  them  for  two  years  and  terminated  in 
this  disruption,  they  began  to  engage  in  more  agreeable 
work  and  a  spirit  of  church  extension  was  waked  up 
throughout  the  entire  presbytery  of  Baltimore.  Com- 
mittees were  appointed  to  visit  various  portions  of  the 
Presbyterian  bounds  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  feeble 
churches,  organizing  congregations  in  desolate  places  and 
seeking  in  other  ways  the  promotion  of  religion.  In  this 
work  the  congregation  of  the  First  Church  took  an  active 
part. 


6o  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  passed  on  June  7  of  the 
same  year  (1837)  by  the  General  Assembly,  then  sitting  at 
Philadelphia,  that  body  appointed  forty  ministers  and 
forty  laymen  as  a  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  to  superintend 
and  conduct  for  it  the  work  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  The  resolution  provided  that  one  fourth 
part  of  the  Board  should  go  out  annually  in  alphabetical 
order,  and  thereafter  ten  ministers  and  ten  laymen  should 
be  annually  elected  to  fill  the  vacancies  thus  created  and 
their  term  of  office  should  be  four  years.  It  directed  said 
Board  to  hold  its  first  meeting  in  the  city  of  Baltimore 
where  it  accordingly  convened  on  the  31st  day  of  October 
1837  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  in  the  lecture  room  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Rev.  John  C.  Backus,  the 
minister  of  the  church,  Mr.  George  Morrison,  an  elder,  and 
Mr.  George  Brown,  a  member  of  the  Committee,  being  all 
members  of  the  Board.  The  Board  then  organized  by 
appointing  Rev.  Ashbel  Green,  D.D.,  Chairman  and  Rev. 
Nicholas  Murray  and  Rev.  John  M.  Krebs  secretaries,  and 
elected  the  following  permanent  officers:  Rev.  Samuel 
Miller,  D.D.,  of  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  President;  Gen. 
WilHam  McDonald  of  Baltimore,  Maryland,  Vice-President; 
Walter  Lowrie,  Esq.,  Secretary,  and  Mr.  James  Paton, 
Treasurer. 

The  number  of  missionaries  under  the  care  of  the  newly 
created  Board  during  the  first  year  of  its  existence  was 
thirty-eight,  which  in  191 2  had  increased  to  1084;  and  the 
amount  of  its  receipts  during  the  latter  year  were  $1,950,000, 
exclusive  of  the  appropriation  of  $794,498.27  from  the 
Kennedy  Fund,  as  against  $44,548.62  the  total  receipts  for 
the  year  1837. 


REYNOLDS  6 1 

In  the  autumn  of  1840  Messrs.  John  Rodgers,  David 
Stewart  and  John  Falconer  were  elected  elders,  and  Henry 
C.  Turnbull,  John  Haskell,  Moses  Hyde  and  Lancaster 
Ould,  deacons,  and  early  in  the  next  year  they  were  ordained. 
This  is  the  first  election  of  deacons  of  which  any  account 
appears  upon  the  church  records.  In  the  sessional  confer- 
ences in  which  the  deacons  took  part^  a  new  impulse  was 
given  to  the  activities  of  the  church.  The  subject  of  colon- 
izing formed  a  prominent  topic  of  the  discussions  and  it 
was  soon  determined  to  make  an  effort  to  build  a  new 
church  somewhere  near  the  cathedral. 

Before  any  plans  were  matured  it  was  understood  that 
the  Second  Church  also  contemplated  colonizing  and  from 
apprehension  that  the  attempt  to  carry  on  two  such  enter- 
prises at  the  same  time  might  endanger  the  success  of  both, 
the  two  churches  agreed  to  unite  on  one  colonization  at  a 
time.  As  the  enterprise  proposed  by  the  Second  Church 
in  East  Baltimore  was  the  smaller  and  therefore  more 
easily  managed  it  was  decided  to  commence  with  that — 
especially  as  the  population  in  that  part  of  the  city  was 
large  and  increasing  and  there  was  but  one  Presbyterian 
Church  east  of  the  Falls.  Accordingly  in  November  1842 
at  the  meeting  of  the  pastors,  elders  and  deacons  of  the 
First  and  Second  Presbyterian  Churches,  held  at  the  First 
Church  parsonage  on  North  Street  the  measure  was  deter- 
mined upon,  a  subscription  was  opened  and  all  the  requisite 
preliminary  steps  were  taken  for  building  the  Aisquith 
Street  Presbyterian  Church,  which  was  completed  in  1844. 

'  This  custom  which  was  kept  up  in  the  First  Church  until  the  beginning 
of  Dr.  Witherspoon's  ministry  in  1894  after  which  the  deacons  ceased  to 
attend  the  meetings  of  session. 


62  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

Although  the  colony  was  principally  from  the  Second 
Church  it  included  one  elder,  one  deacon,  and  some  twenty 
or  thirty  members  of  the  First  Church.  Subsequently  the 
congregation  of  the  First  Church  united  in  a  successful 
effort  to  purchase  a  desirable  parsonage  for  the  Aisquith 
Street  Church  and  also  aided  in  building  a  new  lecture 
room  for  the  congregation  in  the  rear  of  that  church. 

Before  the  Aisquith  Street  Church  was  completed  some 
members  of  the  First  Church  began  to  consider  the  erection 
of  what  afterwards  became  the  Franklin  Street  Church. 
After  having  collected  some  twelve  thousand  dollars  for 
the  purpose,  the  lot  on  which  it  now  stands  was  bought  from 
Mr.  Robert  Gilmor;  the  building  was  commenced  and  after 
two  years,  was  brought  to  completion  in  1846.  Although 
the  cost  was  somewhat  greater  than  had  been  expected, 
the  location  was  found  to  be  most  eHgible  and  when  the 
church  was  opened  for  divine  service  a  large  sale  of  pews 
was  made  and  a  numerous  and  influential  congregation 
gathered.  A  colony  consisting  of  two  elders,  two  deacons, 
seventy  church  members  and  the  famihes  connected  with 
them  went  out  from  the  First  Church  to  form  this  congre- 
gation. *' Seldom,"  says  Dr.  Backus,  "has  a  more  prom- 
ising colony  gone  forth.  It  was  composed  not  of  the  aged, 
the  weak,  the  lame,  the  halt,  but,  as  all  genuine  sacrifices 
should  be,  of  the  firstlings  of  the  flock,  of  the  very  flower 
of  the  congregation.  They  went  not  because  of  any  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  old  church  (some  of  the  most  efficient 
members  of  the  building  committee  as  my  very  venerable 
friend,  Joseph  Taylor,  and  others  expected  to  remain 
behind)  but  gave  their  trust,  money  and  labor  to  the  enter- 
prise, with  a  simple  desire  to  extend  Presbyterianism  in 
our  city." 


REYNOLDS  63 

While  the  enterprise  was  going  on  the  First  Church  was 
also  called  upon  to  assist  the  Second  Church,  from  which 
some  of  the  Franklin  Street  congregation  had  come,  in  the 
work  of  building  Broadway  Church,  but  the  latter,  being 
a  smaller  undertaking  was  completed  first. 

After  the  colony  had  gone  out  to  form  the  Franklin  Street 
Church  the  congregation  decided  to  remodel  their  own 
church  edifice  by  removing  the  pulpit,  which  was  then  at 
the  end  of  the  church  next  to  Fayette  Street,  to  the  opposite 
end  of  the  edifice,  turning  around  the  pews,  substituting 
a  wooden  floor  for  the  brick  one  and  heating  the  building 
by  means  of  a  furnace  in  the  cellar  instead  of  the  four  wood 
stoves  which  originally  stood  on  the  main  floor.  At  the 
same  time  a  new  organ  was  put  in  and  the  sexton's  large 
green  arm  chair  which  used  to  stand  directly  in  front  of  the 
pulpit  was  taken  away. 

From  1829  to  the  latter  part  of  1844,  shortly  before  its 
removal,  this  chair  had  been  occupied  by  Mr.  John  Spence, 
who  during  that  period  had  held  the  ofiice  of  sexton,  which  in 
his  day  included  all  the  functions  of  the  Scottish  beadles 
of  the  old  times,  a  race  of  whom  he  may  be  said  to  have 
been  one  of  the  last  survivors  although  without  its  title 
and  uniform.  As  the  maintenance  of  order  and  decorum 
during  divine  service  was  then  deemed  one  of  his  most 
important  duties,  he  always  carried  about  him  with  as  part 
of  the  insignia  of  his  ofiice,  in  addition  to  the  church  keys, 
a  rattan  designed  to  strike  terror  into  small  boys  who  might 
be  inclined  to  become  obstreperous.  Dr.  Backus  says  of 
him,  ''When  I  first  came,  a  young  man,  the  sexton  in  that 
arm-chair  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  with  his  hymn-book  and 
rattan  inspired  me  with  an  awful  reverence.     I  am  not  sure 


64  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

that  I  did  not  sometimes  look  around,  when  I  made  any  sKp, 
to  see  if  he  was  not  after  me."  The  late  Richard  D.  Fisher, 
for  many  years  a  member  of  the  committee,  shortly  before 
his  death  told  the  writer  that  he  had  not  only  remembered 
old  Mr.  Spence  sitting  in  his  green  arm-chair  in  front  of  the 
pulpit  with  his  hymn-book,  church  keys  and  rattan  upon  a 
stool  before  him,  but  distinctly  recalled  one  occasion  on  which 
he  applied  the  latter  to  a  small  boy  whom  he  seized  by  the 
nape  of  the  neck  and  summarily  ejected  from  the  church 
for  misconduct  during  the  sermon.  It  may  here  be  men- 
tioned that  John  Spence  was  succeded  in  this  office  in 
October  1844  by  his  son,  George  W.  Spence,  and  he  in  turn 
in  June  1873  by  his  son,  John  Backus  Spence,  who  has  filled 
the  position  ever  since  to  the  present  day,  a  rare  instance 
of  the  same  position  being  filled  in  succession  by  father, 
son  and  grandson,  for  over  eighty  years. 

The  large  colonies  which  thus  went  forth  from  the  First 
Church  did  not  affect  its  prosperity,  for  although  in  a  part 
of  the  city  that  was  rapidly  being  occupied  by  places  of 
business  in  the  stead  of  dwelhngs,  it  had  in  three  years  not 
only  paid  for  its  improvements,  which  cost  some  ten  thousand 
dollars,  and  discharged  a  long  standing  debt  of  five  thousand 
dollars  besides,  but  its  income  according  to  the  treasurer's 
statement  was  larger  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 

In  the  year  1848  Messrs.  W.  W.  Spence  and  WilHam 
B.  Canfield  were  elected  ruling  elders,  the  number  of  the 
session  having  been  greatly  reduced  by  deaths  of  Messrs. 
George  Morris  and  Dr.  Maxwell  McDowell  and  the  with- 
drawal of  Mr.  John  Falconer  and  Dr.  David  Steuart,  who 
went  out  with  the  Franklin  Street  colony.  It  may  be  inter- 
esting to  remark  here  that  in  the  volume  of  Maryland 


REYNOLDS  65 

Broadsides  in  the  Library  of  Congress  there  is  a  four  page 
publication  by  Dr.  Maxwell  McDowell  dated  April  19, 
1844,  concerning  the  office  of  ruling  elders  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  maintaining  that  they,  as  well  as  the  clergy, 
ought  to  lay  on  hands  at  the  ordination  of  a  minister  by 
the  Presbytery. 

The  year  1848  also  marked  the  adoption  by  the  session 
of  that  plan  of  systematic  benevolence  which  has  proved 
so  efficacious  in  developing  the  Christian  activities  of  the 
congregation.  Its  introduction  to  the  First  Church  arose 
from  the  circumstance  that  in  1846  when  Dr.  Backus  was 
on  a  visit  to  Scotland,  Dr.  Chalmers  handed  him  a  copy 
of  his  "Christian  Economics,"  a  pamphlet  in  which  he 
developed  the  plan  of  supporting  and  extending  the  gospel, 
which  had  proved  so  successful  in  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land, rendering  it  one  of  the  most  liberal  and  efficient 
churches  in  Christendom;  and  he  warmly  urged  the  adop- 
tion of  something  of  the  same  kind  by  the  churches  in  Amer- 
ica. Shortly  after  Dr.  Backus's  return  the  decrease  in  the 
number  of  his  congregation  caused  by  the  large  colony 
which  went  out  to  the  Franklin  Street  Church  threatened 
a  very  serious  diminution  of  the  collections  so  that  the 
necessity  for  awakening  additional  interest  in  this  subject 
was  deeply  felt.  The  "Free  Church  plan"  was  submitted 
to  the  session  and  after  some  deliberation  adopted  by  them, 
though  not  without  misgivings  lest  the  want  of  familiarity 
with  such  a  mode  of  contributing  and  the  difficulty  of  col- 
lecting the  contributions  from  so  large  a  number  might 
prevent  its  success.  Soon  after  its  adoption  it  was  formally 
explained  in  a  discourse  dehvered  in  September  1848.  The 
success  with  which  it  worked  may  be  best  seen  from  the 


66  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

fact  that  during  the  first  year  the  contributions  of  the 
church  increased  from  three  thousand  dollars,  the  previous 
average,  to  more  than  four  thousand ;  the  second  year  to  five 
thousand  four  hundred;  the  third  year  to  over  six  thousand; 
and  so  they  gradually  increased  until  in  1859  they  amounted 
to  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year,  notwithstanding 
that  during  this  period  there  had  been  lost  by  death  and 
removals  contributors  who  had  given  twelve  hundred 
dollars  annually.  Moreover  in  addition  to  these  stated 
contributions  the  congregation  gave  an  average  of  four 
thousand  dollars  annually  to  special  rehgious  objects, 
making  its  religious  benefactions  during  the  first  eleven 
years  after  the  adoption  of  the  plan  double  the  amount  of 
those  of  the  previous  twelve  years.  This  was  of  course 
exclusive  of  the  ordinary  church  expenses  amounting 
during  these  eleven  years  to  about  forty  thousand  dollars, 
besides  some  eighty  thousand  dollars  more,  which  during 
the  latter  part  of  this  period  were  contributed  towards 
the  building  of  the  present  church  edifice. 

The  next  measure  was  the  purchase,  made  with  the  co- 
operation of  some  of  the  other  Presbyterian  churches,  from 
the  Baptist  denomination  in  1850  of  the  neat  and  sub- 
stantial church  on  Madison  Street  between  Park  and 
Cathedral  Streets  for  the  colored  congregation,  who  still 
occupy  it. 

In  the  same  year  the  need  of  a  church  in  the  western 
part  of  the  city  was  beginning  to  be  deeply  felt  and  it  was 
suggested  that  one  might  be  built  upon  the  grave  yard  of 
the  First  Church  at  the  corner  of  Greene  and  Fayette  Streets 
without  interfering  with  the  sacred  purpose  to  which  this 
ground  had  been  consecrated,  and  so  as  to  prevent  it  from 


REYNOLDS  67 

ever  being  diverted  to  other  uses.  Accordingly  Dr.  Backus, 
Messrs.  Joseph  Taylor,  Alexander  Murdoch,  Archibald 
Stirling,  Daniel  Holt,  William  W.  Spence  and  William  B. 
Cantield  of  the  First  Church  with  Messrs  M.  B.  Clarke 
and  John  Falconer,  Dr.  E.  H.  Perkins,  Mr.  John  Bigham 
of  the  Franklin  Street  Church  and  Mr.  A.  Fenton,  asso- 
ciated themselves  together  for  this  purpose.  The  ground 
was  broken  in  July  1851  and  the  building  completed  in 
one  year,  and  the  Westminster  Church,  as  it  was  then 
named,  was  opened  for  divine  services  on  July  4,  1852. 

Shortly  after  this  the  Twelfth  Church  on  Franklin  Street 
was  built  by  the  First,  Franklin  Street  and  Westminister 
Churches,  and  about  the  same  time  some  ladies  of  the 
First  Church  became  engaged  in  mission  work  on  Federal 
Hill  and  secured  from  the  seminary,  through  the  Ladies' 
Missionary  Sewing  Society,  the  services  of  Rev.  Mr.  Kauf- 
man who  soon  gathered  there  one  of  the  largest  Sabbath 
Schools  in  the  city  which  became  the  nucleus  of  a  congre- 
gation. The  interest  felt  by  the  congregation  of  the  First 
Church  in  a  mission  under  the  care  of  its  ladies  rendered  it 
comparatively  an  easy  matter  to  raise  funds  for  the  erection  of 
the  Light  Street  Church  which  was  begun  in  1854. 

As  early  as  1852,  at  a  social  gathering  at  Mr.  Archibald 
Stirling's,  the  necessity  of  an  eventual  removal  of  the 
First  Church  was  discussed,  as  the  part  of  the  city  in  which 
it  stood  was  then  rapidly  being  filled  up  with  places  of 
business.  Subsequently  a  number  of  members  of  the 
congregation,  after  further  discussion  at  several  meetings 
at  the  parsonage,  determined  to  purchase  the  lot  at  the 
corner  of  Madison  Street  and  Park  Avenue  on  which  the 
present  church  building  stands. 


68  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

In  October  1853  the  congregation  was  convened  to 
consider  the  question  of  removal,  and  after  full  discussion 
resolved  to  accept  the  offer  of  the  lot  from  those  who  had 
purchased  it  and  go  forward  with  the  erection  as  soon  as 
the  old  church  could  be  disposed  of  or  other  arrangements 
made.  Subsequently  plans  designed  by  Mr.  N.  G.  Stark- 
wether  were  submitted  by  Hon.  J.  Morrison  Harris,  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee,  and  the  ground  was  broken  in  July 
1854.  In  1859  the  old  church  was  sold  to  the  United 
States  Government  as  a  site  for  a  Court  House  and  on  the 
last  Sabbath  in  September  of  that  year  the  congregation 
assembled  to  worship  for  the  last  time  in  that  venerable 
building.  The  occasion  was  a  most  interesting  one  and 
many  who  had  attended  there  and  some  whose  ancestors 
had  worshipped  there  met  with  the  regular  congregation 
and  filled  the  house  to  overflowing. 

At  the  morning  service  Dr.  Backus  delivered  the  inter- 
esting discourse  giving  the  history  of  the  congregation  from 
its  beginning,  from  which  this  sketch  is  largely  taken.  At 
the  afternoon  service  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered 
by  the  pastor  assisted  by  Rev.  Joseph  T.  Smith,  D.D.,  of 
the  Second  Church,  Rev.  Cyrus  Dickson,  D.D.,  of  the 
Westminster  Church,  Rev.  George  D.  Purviance,  recently 
pastor  of  the  Fourth  Church,  himself  born  and  brought 
up  in  the  First  Church  and  whose  ancestors  were  among 
its  leading  founders  and  many  of  whom  had  during  succes- 
sive generations  been  among  its  most  valuable  officers, 
and  Rev.  Stephen  WilHams,  the  oldest  Presbyterian  preacher 
in  Baltimore.  Many  former  members  of  the  congregation 
who  had  removed  to  help  estabhsh  other  churches  but 
desired  to  commemorate  once  more  amid  the  solemn  and 


REYNOLDS  69 

tender  associations  of  the  past,  the  dying  love  of  their 
Redeemer  in  their  old  house  of  prayer,  met  together  again 
on  this  occasion .  There  were  also  present,  with  the  exception 
of  Mr.  Henry  C.  Turnbull,  who  was  prevented  by  illness, 
all  the  surviving  elders  and  deacons,  who  had  served  in 
the  church,  Messrs.  John  N.  Brown  and  John  Falconer, 
elders  in  the  Westminster  Church,  Messrs.  David  Courtenay 
and  Lancaster  Ould,  elders  in  the  Franklin  Street  Church, 
Mr.  Moses  Hyde,  elder  in  the  Aisquith  Street  Church,  Dr. 
David  Steuart,  elder  in  the  Annapolis  Presbyterian  Church 
and  Mr.  John  H.  Haskell,  recently  an  elder  in  the  Franklin 
Street  Church,  but  now  again  a  member  of  the  First  Church. 
These  assisted  in  the  distribution  of  the  elements.  The 
service  was  opened  with  singing  and  prayer  by  Mr.  Pur- 
viance.  Then  followed  the  reading  of  the  words  of  the 
institution  and  an  address  by  Dr.  Backus.  The  bread  was 
dispensed  by  Dr.  Dickson  and  the  cup  by  Dr.  Smith.  The 
services  throughout,  at  this  family  reunion  of  the  oldest 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Baltimore,  were  most  tender  and 
solemn,  and  none  of  those  present  were  likely  to  forget  them, 
but  for  the  benefit  of  their  descendants  it  has  been  thought 
desirable  to  preserve  this  brief  memorial. 

The  following  hymn  was  written  by  Miss  Aurelia  Winder 
(afterwards  Mrs.  Townsend)  a  member  of  the  church, 
especially  for  this  service. 

HYMN 

For  the  last  service  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Baltitnore 

Once  more  we  meet  within  this  sacred  place, 
And  where  our  fathers  prayed,  our  hearts  we  bow; 

'Tis  the  last  time  we  here  may  seek  Thy  face : 
God  of  our  fathers,  hear  their  children  now. 


70  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

Remember,  Lord,  here,  in  our  infant  years, 
Our  pious  parents  brought  us  to  thy  throne, 

And  offered  us,  with  many  prayers  and  tears: 
God  of  our  fathers,  now  their  children  own. 

Remember,  in  our  riper  years,  we  met 
Here,  round  Thy  table,  to  renew  the  vow: 

And  though  our  faithless  hearts  do  oft  forget, 
God  of  our  fathers,  seal  the  covenant  now. 

Remember,  here  we  brought  our  grief  and  care. 
Here  cast  our  burthens  on  thy  boundless  love. 

Here  quenched  the  tempter's  fiery  darts  in  prayer : 
God  of  our  fathers,  still  our  helper  prove. 

No  more  within  these  ancient  walls  we  meet, 
Beneath  this  roof  no  more  Thy  grace  implore. 

Nor  here  again  our  hymns  of  praise  repeat : 
God  of  our  fathers,  bless  us  here  once  more.* 

On  the  next  sabbath,  October  2, 1859,  the  present  building 
which  was  then  completed,  excepting  the  spires,  was  dedi- 
cated formally  to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God  with  appro- 
priate services. 

On  January  9,  1861,  Dr.  Elisha  H.  Perkins  and  Messrs. 
John  H.  Haskell,  Alexander  M.  Carter  and  Archibald 
Stirling,  Jr.  were  elected  elders  and  Messrs.  Daniel  Warfield, 
Jr.,  Alexander  I.  Riach,  J.  Franklin  Dix  and  George  H. 
Rodgers  deacons. 

In  May  of  the  same  year.  Dr.  Backus  was  honored  by 
being  chosen  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  (Old  School  Branch)  which  was  held 
that  year  at  Philadelphia.  This  it  will  be  remembered 
was  just  after  the  commencement  of  the  Civil  War  when 

*  "Fugitive  Verses,"  by  Aurelia  Winder  Townsend.  Published  1876, 
p.  46. 


REYNOLDS  7 I 

party  spirit  ran  very  high  and  entered  to  a  great  extent 
into  every  relation  of  life.  The  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  especially  in  the  border  states,  were  greatly 
divided  in  their  sympathies  between  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment and  the  South,  and  nowhere  more  so  than  in  the  First 
Church  in  Baltimore.  Dr.  Backus  while  having  decided 
convictions  as  to  patriotic  duty  which  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  express  frankly  on  all  proper  occasions,  was  also  strongly 
of  the  opinion  that  only  the  things  of  Caesar  should  be 
rendered  unto  him  and  all  the  things  of  God  should  be 
rendered  unto  him  alone,  and  therefore  there  could  be  no 
justification  for  allowing  political  differences  to  become  the 
subject  of  discord,  and  division  in  religious  matters;  and 
he  had  displayed  such  wisdom,  tact,  firmness  and  sancti- 
fied common  sense  in  preventing  party  spirit  from  enter- 
ing as  a  disturbing  element  into  the  conduct  of  religious 
worship  in  his  own  congregation  as  to  mark  him  for  a 
shining  illustration  of  that  course  which  the  best  and  wisest 
leaders  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  deemed  it  proper  for 
that  body  to  pursue  in  those  troublous  times.  This  fact 
doubtless  contributed  largely  to  the  unanimity  with  which 
he  was  selected  to  moderate  the  Assembly  at  such  a  critical 
period. 

In  1862  the  Franklin  Square  Church  (originally  the 
Fourth  Church  and  now  connected  with  the  Southern 
Assembly)  was  completed  by  the  First  Church. 

In  1863  a  mission  Sabbath  School  and  weekly  prayer 
meeting  was  commenced  in  the  Northwestern  section  of 
the  city  which  led  in  1869  to  the  building  of  a  mission  church 
on  the  corner  of  Dolphin  and  Etting  Streets.  After  re- 
maining for  some  time  a  mission  of  the  First  Church  it  was 


72  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

finally  organized  by  the  presbytery  as  the  Dolphin  Street 
Church  and  in  1875  was  united  with  the  Greene  Street 
Church  to  form  Lafayette  Square  Presbyterian  Church. 
This  last  measure  also  was  one  in  which  Dr.  Backus  took 
a  deep  interest  and  it  was  indeed  mainly  through  his  exertions 
that  the  arrangement  was  successfully  carried  through,  a 
a  large  part  of  the  necessary  funds  having  been  contributed 
by  members  of  the  First  Church. 

In  1864  the  Committee  of  the  church  offered  to  increase 
the  pastor's  salary,  but  not  feeling  the  need  of  such  increase 
himself  at  that  time  so  much  as  the  importance  of  more 
efficient  mission  work  on  the  part  of  the  church,  he  asked 
that  instead  of  increasing  his  salary  the  committee  would 
give  him  an  assistant  who  would  supplement  the  pastoral 
work  in  the  mission  Sabbath  School  and  Bible  Class  depart- 
ments. To  this  the  committee  cheerfully  assented  and 
authorized  him  to  engage  the  services  of  such  an  assistant. 
The  Rev.  Jacob  Weidman  was  selected  and  served  with 
great  profit  for  several  years.  When  in  1866  Dr.  Backus' 
eyesight  became  impaired  the  session  and  committee  re- 
quested him  to  take  a  respite  from  work  for  six  months. 
From  this  time  the  assistant  took  part  in  supplying  the 
pulpit.  In  1867  Mr  Weidman  resigned  and  Rev.  John 
Sparhawk  Jones  of  Philadelphia  was  chosen  to  take  his 
place  and  filled  the  pulpit  regularly  at  the  evening  service 
for  the  ensuing  three  years.  During  this  time  he  earned  a 
reputation  as  the  most  brilliant  and  popular  preacher  in 
the  city,  and  the  church  was  thronged  every  Sunday 
evening  with  strangers  and  members  of  other  churches  in 
addition  to  the  regular  congregation,  so  that  chairs  and 
benches  had  to  be  placed  in  the  aisles. 


REYNOLDS  73 

Some  years  previous  to  this,  Mrs.  Isabella  Brown,  a 
member  of  the  First  Church  desiring  to  erect  some  perma- 
nent memorial  of  her  husband,  the  late  George  Brown,  who 
died  in  1859,  determined  after  some  consideration  to  put 
it  in  the  form  of  a  church.  The  distractions  and  uncertain- 
ties in  a  border  city  attendant  upon  the  Civil  War  which 
was  then  going  on  caused  some  delay,  but  in  1870  the  Brown 
Memorial  Church,  erected  by  her  at  the  corner  of  Park 
Avenue  and  Townsend  Street,  was  completed  and  dedi- 
cated and  the  Rev.  John  Sparhawk  Jones  became  its 
first  pastor  and  took  with  him  a  large  colony  from  the  First 
Church.  He  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Timothy  G.  Darling 
of  Nassau,  New  Providence,  as  assistant  pastor  and  in  1873 
Mr.  DarKng  having  accepted  a  call  to  Schenectady,  New 
York,  he  was  succeeded  as  assistant  pastor  by  Rev.  George 
C.  Yeisly  of  Baltimore. 

In  accordance  with  a  resolution  of  the  session  passed 
October  30,  1873,  the  congregation  thenceforward  adopted 
the  custom  of  standing  during  the  singing  of  hymns  in 
pubhc  worship.  In  December  1874  Dr.  Russell  Murdoch 
and  Messrs.  John  J.  Thomsen,  John  V.  L.  Graham  and 
Elisha  H.  Perkins,  Jr.  were  elected  deacons  and  ordained 
in  February  1875.  The  same  year  the  spires  of  the  church 
were  completed,  making  the  entire  cost  of  the  building 
with  its  surroundings  about  $250,000.  It  is  built  of  New 
Brunswick  free  stone  and  its  dimensions  are  as  follows: 
Length  of  house,  131  feet;  width  of  house,  78  feet;  height 
of  main  spire,  273  feet;  height  of  corner  spire,  125  feet; 
height  of  rear  spire,  78  feet;  height  of  ceiling,  58  feet. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  session  in  May  1875,  ^^-  Backus 
stated   that  after  deliberate  and  prayerful  consideration 


74  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  in  view  of  his  advanced 
years  it  would  be  best  for  the  interest  of  the  church  that 
he  should  ask  the  presbytery,  at  its  next  session  in  the 
autumn,  when  he  would  have  completed  the  fortieth  year 
of  his  pastorate,  to  dissolve  the  relation  and  he  gave  his 
reasons  for  this  conclusion  at  some  length.  The  session 
remonstrated  kindly  but  firmly  at  the  time,  and  subse- 
quently in  his  absence  agreed  upon  a  written  statement 
which  they  addressed  to  him  (although  without  altering 
his  conviction  of  duty)  and  ordered  that  his  reasons  with 
their  reply  should  be  put  upon  record.  On  Sunday  Morning, 
October  lo,  1875.  Dr.  Backus  announced  his  intention  to 
the  congregation  to  whom  he  had  ministered  so  acceptably 
for  so  many  years.  The  following  Thursday  a  congre- 
gational meeting  at  which  the  people,  after  taking  measures 
to  satisfy  themselves  that  Dr.  Backus  was  unalterably  fixed 
in  his  resolve,  yielded  to  his  wishes  so  far  as  to  consent 
that  he  be  relieved  from  all  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
of  the  pastoral  ofi&ce,  but  insisted  that  he  retain  his  connec- 
tion with  the  church  as  pastor  emeritus.  And  the  presby- 
tery so  ordered  at  its  meeting  held  October  18. 

At  the  congregational  meeting  held  November  i  1875, 
a  committee  of  eleven  members  of  the  congregation  was 
appointed  to  whom  was  entrusted  the  duty  of  selecting  a 
pastor,  the  congregation  pledging  itself  to  elect  whomso- 
ever this  committee  should  unanimously  recommend.  The 
same  month  the  assistant  pastor  Mr.  Yeisly  accepted  a 
call  to  Hudson,  New  York. 

During  the  long  period  of  over  three  years  which  inter- 
vened between  the  appointment  of  this  committee  and 
the  time  of  its  final  report  in  December  1878,  during  which 


REYNOLDS  75 

the  church  remained  without  a  pastor  and  its  pulpit  was 
filled  by  temporary  supplies  obtained  from  month  to  month 
and  often  from  week  to  week,  it  nevertheless  kept  up  its 
organization  and  its  regular  work  and  even  took  up  new 
work  in  a  truly  remarkable  manner. 

In  January  1876  the  session  decided  to  begin  a  mission 
Sabbath  School  in  a  three  story  irregular  building  which 
had  formerly  been  a  blacksmith  shop  at  the  Southwest 
corner  of  Gay  and  Chase  Streets.  Its  proximity  to  the 
burial  ground  on  the  opposite  corner,  formerly  belonging  to 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  (but  by  it  recently  con- 
veyed to  the  Presbyterian  Association  of  Baltimore  City 
for  preservation  and  the  erection  of  a  church  thereon,) 
was  the  principal  reason  for  the  selection  of  this  point;  for, 
as  it  was  hoped  that  a  church  would  be  the  outcome  of  the 
enterprise,  it  was  thought  desirable  that  it  should  in  its 
inception  be  near  its  future  location.  The  building  was 
accordingly  rented  for  one  year  and  after  the  necessary 
alterations  had  been  made  the  school  was  opened  on  Sunday 
afternoon  February  6,  1876,  with  eighty-one  scholars;  there 
were  present  six  officers  and  twelve  teachers  from  the  First 
Church.  The  first  preaching  service  was  held  on  April  18 
conducted  by  Rev.  J.  William  Mcllvain  with  a  congre- 
gation of  fifty  persons.  This  was  followed  by  similar  serv- 
ices at  irregular  intervals  until  November  24  when  regular 
weekly  preaching  was  undertaken  and  sustained  by  the 
Presbyterian  ministers  of  the  City.  In  the  summer  of  1877 
the  school  had  so  increased  that  the  building  became  incon- 
veniently crowded,  and  a  plan  was  proposed  for  the  erection 
of  Faith  Chapel  on  the  old  Glendy  burial  ground  at  a  cost 
of   $3,000.      Believing    this  to  be  in    furtherance  of  the 


76  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

condition  of  the  deed  conveying  the  ground  to  it  which 
called  for  the  establishment  of  a  church  thereon  for  its 
preservation,  and  the  expenditure  for  that  purpose  of  any 
funds  received  from  the  city  as  damages  for  the  opening 
of  Broadway  through  one  corner  of  it,  the  Presbyterian 
Association  assented  to  the  plan  and  the  building  ^vas  begun 
at  once  and  completed  about  the  beginning  of  the  New 
Year  at  a  total  expenditure  including  furniture  of  about 
$4,000,  of  which  friends  of  the  enterprise  Hving  in  the 
neighborhood  contributed  $400.  It  was  formally  set  apart 
for  the  worship  of  God  on  Sunday  January  6,  1878,  as  Faith 
Chapel  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Rev.  Dr.  Backus 
preaching  the  dedication  sermon.  Its  pulpit  was  supplied 
from  week  to  week  either  from  Princeton  or  by  city  minis- 
ters until  the  following  June  when  the  Rev.  John  P.  Camp- 
bell of  Caledonia,  New  York,  who  was  just  graduated  at 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  on  the  invitation  of  the 
session  took  permanent  charge  of  the  work.  After  Mr. 
Campbell's  ordination  by  the  presbytery  of  Rochester 
which  took  place  October  29,  1878,  the  session  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  met  at  Faith  Chapel  and  received 
into  the  membership  of  the  church  eighteen  persons  on 
profession  of  faith  and  six  by  letter  from  other  churches, 
making,  with  eight  received  before,  a  total  membership  of 
thirty- two  persons  to  whom  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  administered  by  Mr.  Campbell  by  direction 
of  the  session  upon  the  following  Sabbath  in  the  Chapel. 
This  course  was  adopted  to  facilitate  the  growth  of  a  sepa- 
rate congregation  and  was  afterwards  repeated  regularly 
every  three  months  down  to  the  time  when  the  congre- 
gation there  worshiping  was  organized  into  an  independent 
body  as  Faith  Church,  with  its  own  pastor  and  session. 


I 


CHAPTER  V 

DR.  LEFTWICH's  pastorate,  1879-1893 

On  December  2,  1878,  the  committee  of  eleven,  which 
had  been  appointed  three  years  and  one  month  before  to 
select  a  pastor  to  succeed  Dr.  Backus,  made  its  final  report 
to  a  congregational  meeting  duly  called  for  that  purpose, 
presenting  the  name  of  Rev.  James  Turner  Leftwich,  D.D., 
then  pastor  of  the  Central  Presbyterian  Church  of  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  and  the  choice  of  the  committee  having  been 
approved  and  ratified  by  the  congregation  they  were  directed 
to  prosecute  a  call  to  him  at  once.  The  call  was  accepted 
by  Dr.  Leftwich,  who  entered  upon  the  actual  duties  of 
his  new  charge  on  January  18,  1879,  and  was  formally 
installed  on  October  28,  of  the  same  year.  The  Com- 
mittee had  approached  Dr.  Leftwich  previously  but  he  was 
at  that  time  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  a  judicial  case 
which  had  been  appealed  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Southern  Presbyterian  Church,  and,  as  he  did  not  consider 
himself  at  Hberty  to  sever  his  condition  with  that  assembly 
until  the  case  in  question  should  have  been  finally  disposed 
of,  he  had  declined  to  consider  the  call  at  the  time,  but 
after  the  case  had  been  determined,  negotiations  were  re- 
sumed which  resulted  in  this  acceptance  as  already  stated. 

During  the  winter  of  1880  it  was  determined  to  build  a 
Manse  upon  the  lot  in  the  rear  of  the  church  which  had  at 
that  time  of  its  erection  been  given  by  Mr.  George  Brown 
for  that  purpose  and  a  sufficient  amount  having  been  sub- 

77 


78  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

scribed  to  warrant  the  undertaking  the  building  was  begun 
in  March  1881  and  completed  in  the  following  November 
at  a  total  cost  of  $16,000. 

In  1 88 1  Dr.  Russell  Murdoch  and  Mr.  EHsha  H.  Perkins, 
Jr.,  were  elected  ruling  elders,  and  in  1883  Messrs.  John 
V.  L.  Graham  and  Edmund  Witmer  were  elected  ruling 
elders,  and  Messrs.  Samuel  W.  T.  Hopper  and  WilHam 
Reynolds  deacons. 

In  the  spring  of  1883  the  Presbyterian  Association  of 
Baltimore  began  the  erection  of  a  new  Stone  Church  upon 
the  old  Glendy  Burial  Groimd  in  compHance  with  the  con- 
dition of  the  deed  already  mentioned  under  which  it  had 
acquired  title  to  the  property,  the  design  being  that  this 
building  should  be  occupied  by  the  congregation  then 
worshipping  in  Faith  Chapel  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  The  new  building  was  finally  completed  at  a 
cost  of  about  $40,000  derived  partly  from  subscriptions 
and  partly  from  damages  awarded  by  the  city  of  Balti- 
more for  the  ground  taken  for  it  for  the  extension  of  Broad- 
way. It  was  dedicated  on  Thanksgiving  Day  1884  and  has 
since  been  occupied  by  the  congregation  for  which  it  was 
designed.  This  congregation,  which  then  embraced  over 
two  hundred  families,  still  remained  under  the  care  of  the 
session  of  the  First  Church  and  so  continued  imtil  December 
1886  when  it  was  organized  as  an  independent  Presbyterian 
Church  with  its  own  session  and  officers,  and  Rev.  John 
P.  Campbell  was  installed  as  its  first  pastor. 

In  the  year  1883  was  formed  the  Musical  Society  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  being  the  outgrowth  of  the 
Musical  Society  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Sabbath  School, 
an  association  organized  some  two  years  before  to  assist 


REYNOLDS  79 

in  the  Sabbath  School  services  and  supported  by  private 
subscriptions.  By  invitation  of  the  session  early  in  the 
year  1884  the  society  acted  as  the  choir  of  the  church  on 
one  Sunday  evening  of  each  month  and  its  music  proved 
so  acceptable  to  the  congregation  that  later  in  the  spring 
the  session  invited  it  to  serve  as  a  permanent  choir  of  the 
church.  This  invitation  being  accepted  arrangements 
were  made  for  the  support  of  the  society  by  the  church 
and,  subject  to  the  supervision  and  approval  of  the  Music 
Committee  of  the  session,  it  was  given  general  management 
and  control  of  the  church  music.  Its  efforts  from  the 
time  it  took  charge  of  the  music  in  October  1884  received 
the  commendation  and  approval  of  many  members  of  the 
congregation  and  the  arrangement  continued  for  over  four- 
teen years  down  to  January  1900,  when  the  society  had 
become  so  reduced  in  numbers  by  removals  and  resigna- 
tions from  time  to  time,  as  to  neccessitate  the  session  to 
resume  the  control  and  management  of  the  church  music 
directly  through  its  own  music  committee.  The  society 
originally  consisted  exclusively  of  members  of  the  congre- 
gation and  formed  a  large  volunteer  choir  with  a  paid 
instructor,  who  acted  as  leader,  and  an  organist,  both  of 
whom  were  selected  and  employed  by  the  society,  although 
paid  by  the  church.  As  in  process  of  time  one  or  another 
member  of  the  society  dropped  off  or  ceased  to  attend,  it 
was  found  necessary  to  supplement  the  voices  of  these  who 
continued  to  attend  regularly  by  employing  additional 
singers  outside  the  society,  so  that  eventually  the  number 
of  the  salaried  singers  more  than  doubled  that  of  the 
volunteers,  and  the  relation  of  the  choir  master  and  the 
few  surviving  members  of  the  association  became  so  compli- 


8o  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

cated,  that  the  only  feasible  solution  of  the  difhculty  seemed 
to  be  to  invest  the  choir  masle  •  wi  h  absolute  control  of 
the  management  and  selection  of  the  choir  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  committee  of  the  session,  which  could  thus 
hold  him  fully  responsible  to  it  for  all  results. 

On  April  5,  1884,  Rev.  John  C.  Backus,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Pastor  Emeritus  of  this  church,  entered  into  rest,  full  of 
years  and  of  honors,  universally  lamented  by  the  congre- 
gation he  had  served  so  well  for  nearly  half  a  century. 
Like  his  three  predecessors  in  the  pastorate  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  he  remained  its  pastor  until  his  death, 
for  when  in  1875  his  people  reluctantly  yielded  to  his  wish 
to  be  Released  from  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the 
office  they  insisted  that  he  retain  his  connection  with  them 
as  Pastor  Emeritus.  He  was  no  ordinary  man  in  any  sense 
and  if  his  intellectual  powers  have  not  been  as  fully  recog- 
nized and  appreciated  as  they  deserved  by  the  public  at 
large,  it  has  been  because  attention  has  been  drawn  away 
from  them  by  the  unusual  brilHancy  of  his  moral  excellence. 
It  has  been  often  suggested  that  if  Dr.  Backus  had  been 
connected  with  the  Episcopal  Church,  he  undoubtedly 
would  have  been  early  made  a  bishop,  and  it  may  well  be 
added  that  if  he  had  been  in  the  Roman  CathoKc  Commun- 
ion, it  could  nowhere  have  found  any  one  better  fitted  for  a 
cardinal's  hat,  for  he  was  indeed  a  ''prince  of  the  church." 
He  had  great  executive  abifity,  wonderful  tact  and  a  pro- 
found knowledge  of  men  and  of  how  to  influence  them. 
One  who  for  many  years  served  with  him  on  the  committee 
of  the  church  says,  he  never  knew  him  attempt  to  carry  any 
measure  through  a  body  of  men  without  eventually  meeting 
with  success  in  bringing  them  to  his  view. 


REYNOLDS  8l 

His  method  was  well  described  by  his  lifelong  friend  and 
associate  in  the  ministry,  Dr.  Joseph  T.  Smith:  "He  was 
not  a  man  of  popular  meetings  and  platform  speeches  and 
public  noisy  display.  His  work  was  done  quietly  and 
unostentatiously.  Deliberately  and  prayerfully  he  made 
up  his  mind  that  a  certain  enterprise  ought  to  be  under- 
taken for  the  Master's  sake.  Then  he  went  from  house  to 
house,  from  man  to  man  stating  and  explaining  the  subject 
rather  as  one  seeking  hght  and  asking  for  counsel.  He 
listened  patiently  to  objections,  tried  to  win  the  unresolved 
and  stimulate  the  halting  and  halfhearted,  sometimes 
waiting  for  a  more  favorable  conjunction  but  only  to  labor 
on  and  bide  the  time  till  all  should  be  accomphshed."  It 
is  doubtful  if  at  the  time  of  his  death  there  was  any  man 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  whose  personaHty  alone  exer- 
cised a  stronger  influence  than  did  his;  there  certainly 
was  not  at  that  time  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  another  clergy- 
man of  any  denomination  so  universally  known  and  revered 
and  beloved.  An  old  and  prominent  citizen,  himself  a 
devoted  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  used  to  say, 
that  if  he  ever  were  in  a  position  of  great  deHcacy  in  which 
he  was  uncertain  what  course  his  duty  as  a  Christian  or 
as  a  gentleman  would  require  him  to  pursue,  there  was  no 
man  living  in  whose  counsel  and  advice  he  would  feel  such 
imphcit  confidence  as  in  that  of  Dr.  John  C.  Backus. 

As  a  characteristic  illustration  of  his  unobtrusive  self- 
abnegation  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  mention  here  the 
fact  known  to  comparatively  few  that  the  doctor  greatly 
enjoyed  a  good  cigar,  but  because  of  his  discovery  that  the 
odor  of  the  fragrant  weed  was  not  agreeable  to  certain 
members  of  his  household,  he  denied  himself  the  satisfaction 


82  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

of  indulging  in  it  excepting  when  he  went  away  to  the 
presbytery,  when  he  was  doubtless  satisfied  that  lighting 
one  more  cigar  would  not  have  any  material  effect  upon  the 
surrounding  atmosphere.  While  it  would  be  unjust  to  hint 
that  this  indulgence  which  the  doctor  thus  allowed  himself 
was  an  efficient  cause  for  the  regularity  with  which  he 
always  attended  the  judicatories  of  the  church,  it  is  never- 
theless pleasant  to  know  that  in  this  case  at  least,  ''virtue 
brought  its  own  reward"  to  one  who  well  deserved  it. 

Although  Presbyterianism  in  Baltimore  undoubtedly 
owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  man  who  ever  labored 
here,  he  was  too  great  a  man  to  belong  to  any  single  church 
or  to  any  one  denomination  alone.  His  sympathies  were 
as  broad  as  humanity  itself,  but  he  was  not  one  to  let  himself 
be  so  carried  away  by  ghttering  generalities  as  to  neglect 
special  duties  and  obligations,  nor  did  he  ever  allow  his 
zeal  for  the  public  good  to  interfere  with  the  claims  of  his 
own  congregation.  Every  sermon  he  preached  bore  the 
impression  of  careful  preparation  and  earnest  study,  but 
he  himself  stated  more  than  once  that  it  had  been  his  habit 
for  forty  years  to  devote  systematically  five  hours  each 
day  to  the  work  of  visiting  his  people.  In  short  there  was 
no  relation  of  fife  in  which  he  found  himself  that  he  did 
not  strive  so  faithfully  and  so  successfully  to  discharge  its 
duties,  that  view  him  from  whatever  point  we  may,  he 
always  displayed  a  character  like  that  of  the  patriarch  of 
Uz,  in  whom  not  even  the  Adversary  himself  could  point 
out  a  single  flaw,  when  asked,  "Hast  thou  considered  my 
servant  Job  that  there  is  none  like  him  in  the  earth,  a  per- 
fect and  upright  man,  one  that  feareth  God  and  escheweth 
evil?" 


REYNOLDS  83 

The  session's  narrative  to  presbytery  for  the  year  ending 
April  1886  states  that  while  attendance  at  pubHc  worship 
was  large,  showing  an  encouraging  increase  at  both  services, 
there  was  a  growing  habit,  as  in  many  other  congregations, 
of  attending  but  one  service  a  day,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  children  and  youth  of  the  congregation  were  all  but  univer- 
sally in  attendance  at  the  morning  service,  as  well  as  a 
reasonable  proportion  of  the  children  of  the  Sabbath  School 
whose  parents  were  not  members  of  the  congregation,  also 
that  at  least  one  third  of  those  present  at  Sabbath  services 
were  not  professors  of  religion. 

In  July  1887  the  Men's  Association  for  Christian  Work 
consisting  of  male  members  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church,  who  had  organized  about  a  year  before  for  the  sys- 
tematic prosecution  of  the  various  lines  of  church  activity  for 
which  opportunities  should  from  time  to  time  be  afforded, 
started  a  mission  work  on  Hillen  Street  near  the  Western 
Maryland  Railroad  Station,  under  the  name  of  ''Hope 
Institute  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church;"  it  provided  a 
free  reading  room  for  men  and  boys  open  every  night  in  the 
week,  it  held  devotional  exercises  on  Sunday  afternoons 
(soon  changed  to  evenings),  and  maintained  a  sewing  school 
on  Saturday  mornings,  and  a  free  kindergarden  five  days 
in  the  week,  and  a  Sabbath  School  on  Sunday  afternoons. 
As  the  work  grew  the  accommodations  became  inadequate 
and  the  following  year  a  larger  and  better  building,  the 
upper  story  of  a  warehouse,  at  the  corner  of  East  and  Hillen 
Streets,  was  leased  for  the  Institute.  On  November  i, 
1888,  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Martin  was  engaged  to  conduct  the 
preaching  service  on  Sunday  evenings,  and  on  April  i,  1889 
he  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Smith,  who  under- 


84  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

took  the  general  supervision  of  the  religious  meetings  and 
pastoral  visiting.  Two  years  later  he  was  succeeded  by 
Rev.  William  Caldwell,  who  remained  in  charge  for  nine 
years  until  April  1900.  In  the  meantime  the  Men's  Associa- 
tion, by  a  change  of  its  constitution  adopted  in  189 1,  became 
the  Society  of  Christian  Workers,  and  included  members 
of  both  sexes;  it  still  continued  to  have  general  charge  of  the 
work  until  the  society  was  dissolved  in  the  spring  of  1902. 

Early  in  1888  the  church  acquired  a  new  organ  of  great 
sweetness  and  power,  the  gift  of  Elder  WilKam  W. 
Spence,  who  on  March  19  completed  forty  years  of  his 
service  as  an  elder  in  this  congregation ;  and  during  the  same 
year  was  finished  a  new  and  handsome  building,  which  was 
erected  upon  the  rear  of  the  church  lot  for  the  use  of  the 
Sabbath  School  and  other  church  work;  it  was  admirably 
adapted  to  its  purposes,  well  Kghted,  ventilated  and  heated 
with  all  the  best  modern  appliances  then  in  use. 

On  Sunday,  February  5,  1893,  Dr.  Leftwich  requested 
the  congregation  to  remain  after  service  to  receive  an 
announcement  from  him  and  after  calling  Elder  Wm.  W. 
Spence  to  preside,  withdrew  after  placing  in  his  hands  a 
letter  resigning  his  charge  on  account  of  his  increasing  bodily 
infirmities.  The  letter  having  been  read  to  the  congre- 
gation, was  laid  over  for  future  consideration  at  a  congre- 
gational meeting  to  be  called  by  the  session  for  the  purpose. 
The  chairman  then  announced  that  at  a  meeting  of  the  Elders 
and  Deacons  and  the  Committee  of  the  church,  held  two 
days  before,  the  following  paper  had  been  adopted : 

Dr.  James  Turner  Leftwich,  our  pastor,  owing  to  increasing 
feebleness  of  health  has  felt  constrained  to  tender  his  resignation. 
The  congregation  will  learn  of  this  with  much  pain,  but  it  is 
unavoidable.     In  losing  Dr.  Leftwich  our  church  loses  a  dear 


REYNOLDS  85 

friend  and  a  faithful  self-sacrificing  pastor,  whose  well  considered 
opinions  and  ad\ice  have  been  sought  and  much  valued  in 
presbytery,  synod  and  assembly  as  that  of  a  profound  thinker 
and  mse  counsellor.  He  has  served  us  faithfully  for  fourteen 
years.  He  has  gone  in  and  out  amongst  us  in  visiting  our  families 
as  faithfully  as  his  strength  would  permit,  carrying  comfort 
especially  to  those  who  were  in  sickness  and  sorrow,  and  all  who 
received  his  comforting  visits  greatly  appreciated  his  tender 
sympathy  and  kindly  attentions. 

Retiring  as  he  does  with  feeble  health  and  without  a  sufficiency 
of  private  means  to  insure  a  comfortable  support  for  himself  and 
family,  it  is  proposed  that  our  congregation  should  raise  a  fund 
of  $40,000  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  trustees  of  the  church 
for  the  following  purposes:  the  income  from  this  fund  to  be  paid 
to  Dr.  Leftwich  for  life  and  when  our  duty  in  that  respect  shall 
have  passed  away,  the  income  to  be  used  by  the  trustees  in  the 
preservation  of  the  church  building. 

It  was  further  provided  that  the  trustees  should  make 
some  provision  out  of  the  income  of  the  fund  for  Dr.  Lcft- 
wich's  family  after  his  death  should  it,  in  their  judgment, 
be  necessary.  These  recommendations  having  been  ap- 
proved by  those  present,  the  congregation  was  dismissed. 
It  may  be  added  here  that  a  fund  of  $35,000  was  raised 
shortly  afterwards  in  the  congregation  by  subscription  for 
the  purposes  proposed  in  the  foregoing  paper  and  was  duly 
applied  by  the  trustees  as  therein  directed. 

A  congregational  meeting  was  called  for  Sunday,  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1893,  after  the  morning  service  to  take  action 
on  Dr.  Leftwich's  letter  of  resignation.  In  this  letter,  after 
stating  that  the  cause  which  necessitated  his  resignation 
would  at  the  same  time  terminate  his  active  service  in  the 
ministry,  he  mentioned  as  a  cause  for  thanksgiving  that 
during  his  ministry  "nearly  all  the  dead  at  whose  graves 
we  have  wept  together  have  left  ground  for  the  hope  that 


86  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

they  were  no  sooner  'absent  from  the  body  than  present 
with  the  Lord/  that  at  every  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  some  penitents  have  for  the  first  time  sat  with  us 
in  the  heavenly  places  in  Christ,  that  your  ever  multiplying 
activities  reveal  a  corresponding  growth  in  your  spiritual 
life  and  energies,  and  that  there  opens  before  you  a  pros- 
pect of  increasing  numbers  and  efficiency  on  whose  horizon 
rests  no  cloud." 

He  further  recorded  the  fact  that  ''while  few  sessions 
have  been  called  upon  to  pass  upon  questions  more  important 
and  diverse  your  elders  have  yet  to  adopt  a  measure  by  a 
divided  vote,  action  on  every  case  in  which  opinions  have 
differed  being  held  in  suspense  until  wisdom  was  given  us 
to  be  of  one  mind  as  we  were  of  one  heart." 

The  congregation  feeling  constrained  to  unite  with  Dr. 
Leftwich,  reluctantly  elected  three  commissioners  to  repre- 
sent it  before  the  presbytery  for  that  purpose,  but  in  so 
doing  expressed  its  great  sorrow  at  the  termination  of  his 
relation  with  it,  and  also  the  hope  that  he  might  if  possible 
continue  his  ministration  at  least  until  the  time  for  taking 
his  usual  summer  vacation. 


I' 


CHAPTER  VI 

DR.  WITHERSPOON'S  PASTORATE    1894-1897 

At  a  congregational  meeting  held  on  May  7,  1893  ^ 
committee  of  five  persons  was  chosen  to  select  a  pastor  and 
make  report  to  a  future  meeting.  They  reported  on  May 
28,  recommending  the  election  of  Rev.  Theron  H.  Rice,  Jr. 
of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Alexandria,  Virginia, 
who  was  accordingly  elected,  but  decHned  the  call.  At  a 
congregational  meeting  held  October  16,  1893  the  committee 
recommended  the  election  of  Rev.  Jere  Witherspoon,  D.D., 
then  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Nashville, 
Tennessee.  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  elected  and  a  call  extended 
to  him  which  he  accepted.  He  entered  on  his  pastoral 
duties  December  24,  1893,  ^^^  was  formally  installed  on 
March  6,  1894. 

On  January  18,  1894  the  session  determined  that  in  order 
to  invest  the  reception  of  members  into  the  church  with 
more  solemnity  and  publicity  than  heretofore,  those  re- 
ceived from  this  time  forth  be  required  to  make  public 
profession  of  their  faith  and  of  their  desire  to  unite  with 
the  church  prior  to  the  long  prayer  in  morning  service  of 
Communion  Sabbath.  The  practice  thus  inaugurated  was 
kept  up  during  Dr.  Witherspoon's  pastorate,  but  after  his 
resignation  and  during  the  long  interval  which  elapsed 
before  the  election  of  his  successor  it  was  discontinued  by 
tacit  consent  but  has  been  resumed  since  Dr.  Alfred  H. 
Barr  became  pastor. 

87 


88  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

On  May  ii,  1894,  Mr.  Andrew  Reid,  a  member  of  the 
committee  of  the  church,  offered  to  advance  the  necessary 
funds,  not  to  exceed  twenty  thousand  dollars,  to  pay  for 
the  erection  upon  the  lot  owned  by  the  church  on  the  North 
side  of  Madison  Street  near  Harford  Avenue  of  a  building 
suitable  for  the  use  of  the  mission  work  then  carried 
on  under  the  auspices  and  care  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  as  a  memorial  to  his 
two  deceased  children,  to  include  a  brass  tablet  in  an  appro- 
priate place  in  the  building  bearing  the  following  or  an 
equivalent  inscription : 

To  THE  Glory  of  God  and  in  memory  of 
Brooke  G.  Reid,  died  aged  19  years,  and 
Fanny  L.  R.  Browning,  died  aged  27  years, 
This  building  is  erected  by  their  father  and  mother, 
Andrew  and  Fanny  B.  Reid,  A.D.  MDCCCXCIV. 

This  generous  gift  was  gratefully  accepted  by  the  session 
and  the  committee  of  the  church  and  a  building  committee 
was  appointed  at  the  suggestion  of  the  donor  consisting  of 
Messrs.  Andrew  Reid,  Elisha  H.  Perkins,  Jr.,  John  V.  L. 
Graham,  W.  Hall  Harris,  Douglas  M.  Wylie  and  James  I. 
Fisher.  The  building  was  immediately  begun  and  was 
completed  in  the  spring  of  1897  at  the  cost  of  $28,000  and 
formally  dedicated  and  turned  over  to  the  church  on 
Simday,  March  31  of  that  year,  being  thenceforth  known 
as  the  '^Reid  Memorial  Hope  Mission." 

On  February  25, 1897  Rev.  James  Turner  Leftwich,D.D., 
fifth  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  died  at  Liberty 
(now  Bedford  City),  Virginia,  where  he  was  born  on  Janu- 


REYNOLDS  89 

ary  3,  1835.  The  failure  of  his  eyesight  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  his  resigning  his  pastorate  but  for  several  years 
before  doing  so  he  had  been  a  great  sufferer  from  sciatica 
which  had  completely  broken  down  his  once  vigorous  consti- 
tution. Sunday  after  Sunday  he  had  limped  into  his  pulpit 
leaning  heavily  upon  his  cane  while  every  nerve  in  his  body 
was  quivering  with  acute  agony,  until  having  got  well 
under  way  in  the  services  he  was  so  carried  away  with 
the  subject  of  his  discourse  as  to  become  utterly  oblivious 
to  all  bodily  weakness  and  pain.  He  was  undoubtedly  a 
greater  preacher  than  any  of  his  predecessors  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Dr.  Inghs.  As  a  period  of  nearly 
sixty  years  had  elapsed  between  the  death  of  Dr.  Inglis 
in  1819  and  the  beginning  of  Dr.  Leftwich's  pastorate  in 
January  1879,  few  if  any  persons  were  surviving  at  the  latter 
date  who  had  ever  heard  Dr.  Inglis  preach  and  the  few 
printed  sermons  of  the  latter  which  we  possess  are  inade- 
quate for  the  purpose  of  making  comparison  between  them. 
But  beyond  all  question  Dr.  Leftwich  was  in  every  way  a 
great  preacher.  Gifted  by  nature  with  a  wonderful  command 
of  language  and  rare  powers  of  imagination  and  fancy 
which  won  for  him  at  college  a  reputation  for  eloquence, 
the  traditions  of  which  still  lingered  there  for  many  years 
after  all  his  class-mates  had  been  graduated,  and  which  had 
caused  them  to  predict  confidently  for  him  a  brilKant  career 
at  the  bar  or  in  political  Hfe,  it  seems  that  upon  entering 
the  ministry,  he  deliberately  subordinated  those  powers 
and  held  them  in  check  in  obedience  to  his  desire  to  preach 
the  simple  gospel  truth  without  regard  to  himself  or  his 
own  reputation  as  a  speaker.  And  yet  at  times  these  would 
assert  themselves  in  striking  imagery  and  give  his  hearers 


go  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

a  taste  of  what  he  might  have  accomplished  as  a  mere  word- 
painter  had  he  been  willing  to  indulge  his  own  self-love  at 
the  expense  of  what  was  ever  present  in  his  mind  and  con- 
stituted the  absorbing  passion  of  his  Hfe — a  sense  of  duty. 
None  of  those  present  at  the  trial  of  Dr.  Briggs  before  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Wash- 
ington in  1893  could  soon  forget  the  thrill  which  passed 
through  that  body  when  Dr.  Leftwich  closed  a  three  minute 
speech  by  describing  the  church  which  should  reject  the 
authority  of  the  scriptures  as  its  absolute  rule  of  faith  and 
practice  as  ''a  rudderless  ship  in  a  starless  night,  upon  a 
shoreless  ocean. '^ 

His  method  of  preparing  his  sermons  was  peculiar.  Al- 
though every  one  of  them  was  carefully  studied  out  and  pre- 
pared before  hand,  it  was  never  committed  to  writing  until 
the  day  after  its  delivery,  when  he  generally  wrote  it  out  in 
full  to  preserve  it  for  future  reference  when  he  should  have 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  same  subject  another  time.  He 
once  stated  in  the  presence  of  the  writer  that  he  never  could 
preach  the  same  sermon  the  second  time.  He  said  that  he 
knew  that  some  of  his  brethren  had  sermons  that  they 
preached  over  and  over  again  with  great  effect  but  added: 
^'I  cannot  do  it.  I  feel  that  every  sermon  I  preach  must 
be  prepared  with  special  reference  to  the  audience  to  whom 
and  the  occasion  upon  which  it  is  to  be  delivered."  He 
had  but  one  test  he  always  applied  when  discussing  the 
sermons  which  distinguished  ministers  from  time  to  time 
dehvered  in  his  pulpit.  He  would  say,  "What  lesson  was 
that  sermon  designed  to  teach  and  how  did  it  teach  it?" 
This  test  which  he  apphed  to  the  sermons  of  others  was 
the  same  to  which  he  subjected  his  own. 


REYNOLDS  9I 

Some  five  or  six  years  before  his  death  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Baltimore  bar  whose  personal  acquaintance 
with  Dr.  Leftwich  was  very  slight  and  who  had  no  sympathy 
whatever  with  either  his  theological  opinions  or  religious 
connections  and  was  therefore  entirely  free  from  personal  or 
party  bias  in  his  favor,  in  the  course  of  a  private  conver- 
sation with  the  writer  in  discussing  the  relative  merits  and 
methods  of  the  greatest  pubhc  speakers  of  the  day,  said : 
''I  think  that  Dr.  Leftwich  of  your  church  is  beyond  all 
question  the  finest  rhetorician  I  ever  heard.  In  using  this 
word  I  do  not  use  it  in  the  vulgar  sense  of  a  man  who  indulges 
in  florid  elocution  or  studied  declamation,  but  in  its  proper 
sense  as  of  one  who  has  the  power  to  express  in  clear,  terse 
and  forcible  language  the  precise  shade  of  meaning  that  he 
wishes  to  convey.  You  may  take  any  one  of  Dr.  Left- 
wich's  sentences  and  pull  it  to  pieces  and  reconstruct  it, 
but  you  cannot  substitute  a  single  word,  you  cannot  change 
its  arrangement  without  weakening  the  clearness  or  the 
strength  of  the  idea  which  he  undertakes  to  convey." 
But  Dr.  Leftwich  was  far  more  than  a  rhetorician  even  in 
this  high  sense;  he  was  a  clear  and  vigorous  thinker,  and  it 
was  the  idea  and  the  thought  behind  his  language  which 
gave  him  such  a  power  of  expression.  He  would  begin  by 
laying  down  premises  so  self-evident  that  none  dare  dispute 
them,  and  then  draw  his  hearers  step  by  step  with  the  chain 
of  his  irresistible  logic  to  conclusions  from  which  there  was 
left  no  apparent  avenue  of  escape.  And  in  doing  this  he 
drew  his  words  from  a  well  of  English  as  undefiled  as  that 
of  Chaucer  himself  and  wove  them  with  matchless  skill  into 
sentences  as  chaste,  as  unadorned  and  yet  as  perennially 
charming  as  the  Doric  columns  of  those  Grecian  Temples 


92  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

which  have  delighted   the  world  for   more   than   twenty 
centuries. 

Though  lacking  that  power  of  initiative  in  devising  new 
schemes  of  Christian  activity  possessed  in  such  an  eminent 
degree  by  his  predecessor,  Dr.  Backus,  he  nevertheless 
always  showed  remarkable  judgment  in  estimating  the 
value  of  the  schemes  suggested  by  others,  and  had  great 
success  in  carrying  through  whatever  enterprise  he  under- 
took. His  forte  however  was  rather  in  convincing  bodies 
of  men  than  in  persuading  individuals  singly,  as  was  demon- 
strated by  the  influence  that  he  invariably  exercised  in  the 
debates  of  every  dehberative  body  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
from  the  church  session  up  to  the  General  Assembly,  in- 
cluding all  the  committees  of  any  of  these  bodies  on  which 
he  was  appointed.  When  sitting  in  a  judicatory  he  was 
always  an  attentive  listener  and  rarely  spoke  until  he  felt 
that  he  had  fully  grasped  the  situation  and  that  there  was 
something  he  felt  called  to  say  upon  the  pending  question. 
And  when  he  did  speak  that  question  was  usually  settled  in 
the  way  that  he  suggested. 

With  all  his  powers  however  he  was  of  a  singularly  modest, 
retiring  and  unobtrusive  nature.  He  had  that  nice  regard 
for  the  sensibilities  of  others  which  made  it  more  painful 
to  him  to  be  obliged  to  say  what  might  be  taken  as  a  dis- 
approving word  of  another,  than  it  was  to  receive  a  slight 
himself,  for  he  had  what  is  sometimes  called  a  '' Presby- 
terian Conscience"  which  never  allowed  him  to  spare  him- 
self in  the  discharge  of  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty, 
however  it  might  affect  his  own  feelings,  his  comfort  or  his 
health.  Yet  although  he  never  shrank  from  the  full  dis- 
charge of  any  duty  that  he  felt  he  owed  to  others,  he  did 


REYNOLDS  93 

not  make  the  mistake  of  setting  up  his  own  conscience  as 
the  rule  by  which  to  judge  his  neighbor.  He  felt  that  every 
man  must  be  the  judge  of  the  measure  of  his  own  responsi- 
bility and  must  therefore  decide  for  himself  how  far  he 
should  refrain  from  things  not  evil  themselves.  There  was 
nothing  of  the  ascetic  about  him,  and  he  always  maintained 
that  the  good  things  of  this  Kfe  are  gifts  of  a  loving  Father 
to  be  received  with  thankfulness  and  enjoyed  with  gratitude 
so  long  as  they  do  not  interfere  with  the  performance  of 
some  positive  duty.  Dr.  J.  Sparhawk  Jones,  referring  to 
this  side  of  his  character,  says,  ''I  enjoyed  my  intercourse 
with  him  especially  during  the  two  winters  which  I  had 
contact  with  him  in  the  First  Church.  His  affabihty, 
geniality  and  humor  and  unfailing  kindness  and  cordiality 
of  manner  could  not  fail  to  capture  any  one  admitted  to 
his  friendship.  He  was  a  delightful  conversationalist,  full 
of  anecdote  and  reminiscences.  I  loved  to  hear  him  talk, 
for  he  had  always  something  instructive,  suggestive  or 
sprightly,  and  his  speech  was  full  of  maturity  and  wisdom. 
And  along  with  his  sound  instincts  and  fine  practised  sense 
and  correct  judgment  and  clear  vision  of  things  there  went 
also  a  generous  consideration  for  others,  a  tact,  urbanity 
and  polish  of  manner  and  sweetness  of  disposition  that 
were  charming  and  conciliatory  of  those  who  might  differ 
from  him." 

But  above  all  things  Dr.  Leftwich  was  an  eminently 
sincere  man.  He  was  absolutely  sincere  in  all  things — so 
much  so  that  he  invariably  impressed  every  one  with  whom 
he  had  relations  with  the  sense  of  his  sincerity.  And  it 
was  this  perfect  sincerity,  simphcity  and  kindliness  of  his 
character  that  so  greatly  endeared  him  to  all  with  whom  he 
was  brought  into  contact. 


94  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CUHRCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

On  October  27,  1897  Dr.  Witherspoon  resigned  his 
charge  to  accept  a  call  to  Grace  Church  at  Richmond, 
Virginia.  During  his  comparatively  brief  pastorate  of  not 
quite  four  years  Dr.  Witherspoon  had  greatly  endeared 
himself  to  many  of  his  congregation  by  the  faithful  and 
assiduous  manner  in  which  he  had  discharged  the  duties 
of  his  office  and  his  departure  was  felt  by  them  not  only  to 
involve  the  loss  of  an  efficient  and  devoted  pastor,  but  a 
separation  from  a  well  beloved  personal  friend.  He  carried 
this  aflFection  with  him  to  his  new  home  where  his  minis- 
trations proved  eminently  successful  in  every  way  among 
his  own  congregation,  and  also  won  for  him  in  an  equal 
degree  the  honor  and  esteem  of  the  entire  community  into 
which  he  came  and  their  warm  affection  he  retained  to  the 
time  of  his  death  on  October  28,  1909.  A  direct  lineal 
descendant  of  the  eminent  Presbyterian  divine,  College 
President  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
John  Witherspoon,  he  seemed  entitled  by  inheritance  to  a 
high  place  in  the  Christian  ministry  and  in  the  work  of 
morally  and  intellectually  upUfting  his  countrymen,  and 
if,  in  discharging  the  duties  to  which  he  was  from  time  to  time 
providentially  called  he  was  not  brought  as  conspicuously 
before  the  general  public  as  was  his  illustrious  ancestor 
during  his  career,  he  nevertheless  always  discharged  those 
duties  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  the  recipients  of  his 
ministrations  to  hold  him  long  in  grateful  remembrance 
for  the  assiduous  devotion,  loving  zeal  and  Christian  cour- 
tesy with  which  he  sought  to  do  his  Master's  will. 

At  the  congregational  meeting  held  December  15,  1897, 
Messrs.  William  H.  Dix  and  William  Reynolds  were  elected 
elders.     They  were  ordained  on  January  9,  il 


REYNOLDS  95 

On  January  19,  1898,  the  congregation  appointed  a 
committee  of  seven  to  select  a  pastor  and  they  reported 
May  II,  1898,  recommending  the  election  of  Rev.  Donald 
Guthrie,  late  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Walker- 
ton,  Canada,  who  was  then  acting  as  temporary  assistant 
to  Rev.  Dr.  Moses  D.  Hoge  in  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Richmond,  Virginia;  and  a  call  was  accordingly 
extended  to  him.  About  the  same  time  however,  he  received 
a  call  to  be  associate  pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Richmond,  which  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to 
accept  under  existing  circumstances  and  therefore  declined 
the  call  to  Baltimore. 

On  February  12,  1899,  the  congregation  elected  Rev. 
James  I.  Vance,  D.D.,  of  Nashville  as  its  pastor,  but  after 
consideration  he  declined  the  call  and  decided  to  remain 
at  Nashville. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DR.  Guthrie's  pastorate  1899-1910 

On  November  12,  1899,  ^^ter  Dr.  Hoge's  death,  the 
congregation  of  the  First  Church  extended  a  second  call 
to  Dr.  Guthrie  which  he  accepted  and  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  his  ministry  on  December  5  and  was  duly  installed 
by  the  presbytery  on  December  18,  1899.  He  had  made 
it  one  of  the  conditions  of  his  acceptance  that  he  should 
continue  to  wear  in  the  pulpit  the  Geneva  gown  and  bands 
as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do  in  Canada. 

On  January  5,  1900,  the  session  having  as  already  stated 
rescinded  its  action  of  June  30,  1894,  constituting  the 
Musical  Society  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  the 
church  choir,  and  having  resumed  the  direct  control  of  the 
music  through  its  own  committee,  reorganized  the  choir 
by  appointing  Mr.  S.  Archer  Gibson  choirmaster  and  or- 
ganist and  Mr.  Harry  Fahnestock  Business  Manager. 

On  March  6,  1900,  Rev.  William  Caldwell  resigned  his 
position  of  Minister  in  Charge  of  Hope  Mission  to  take 
effect  during  the  following  month  and  on  June  14  the  session 
appointed  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Barron  of  Toronto,  Canada, 
to  succeed  him.  He  was  ordained  as  an  evangelist  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Baltimore  in  October  of  the  same  year. 
During  the  last  six  years  of  Mr.  Caldwell's  ministry  at  Hope 
Mission  quite  a  congregation  had  been  collected  there  and 
religious  services  were  held  morning  and  evening  on  Sunday 
and  also  on  Wednesday  evenings  in  the  new  Reid  Mem- 

96 


REYNOLDS  97 

orial  building,  in  addition  to  the  Sunday  School  and  the 
institutional  work  there  carried  on. 

On  January  31,  1901,  the  session  decided  on  the  publi- 
cation of  a  monthly  paper  to  be  called  ''Our  Church  Work/' 
designed  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  all  the  members  fully  in- 
formed about,  and  more  closely  in  touch  with,  all  the  Chris- 
tian activities  engaged  in  by  the  various  societies  and  other 
organizations  connected  with  the  congregation.  The  first 
number  was  issued  April  i  and  the  paper  continued  until 
November  1909  when  by  action  of  the  session  it  was  com- 
bined with  the  weekly  bulletin. 

On  February  9,  1901  Messrs.  Edward  H.  Griffin,  David 
F.  Haynes  and  George  H.  Rodgers  were  elected  elders  and 
Messrs.  Edward  F.  Arthurs,  C.  Braxton  Dallam,  Harry 
Fahnestock,  A.  Crawford  Smith  and  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner 
were  elected  deacons.     They  were  ordained  March  10. 

In  the  early  part  of  1902  the  congregation  at  the  Reid 
Memorial  having  expressed  a  desire  for  greater  indepen- 
dence, with  a  \dew  to  becoming  an  independent  congre- 
gation in  the  near  future,  and  there  having  arisen  some 
friction  in  consequence  of  the  institutional  work  and  the 
Sunday  School  being  under  the  control  of  the  society  of 
Christian  Workers,  it  was  decided  by  the  session  on  March 
19,  1902,  to  put  the  entire  work  under  the  control  of  a 
committee  of  the  session  acting  through  the  minister  in 
charge,  and  the  Society  of  Christian  Workers  was  accord- 
ingly dissolved. 

On  April  2, 1902,  Messrs.  G.  Frank  Baily  and  A.  Crawford 
Smith  were  elected  elders  and  Dr.  Charles  J.  Keller  and 
Mr.  I.  Evans  Rodgers  were  elected  deacons.  They  were 
ordained  April  13. 


98  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

On  October  19,  1902,  the  session  engaged  Rev.  R.  L. 
Walton  of  Virginia  as  assistant  to  the  minister  for  one  year. 
At  the  end  of  his  term  no  successor  was  appointed. 

On  October  29,  1902,  Rev.  John  S.  Conning,  of  Walkerton, 
Canada,  was  appointed  minister  in  charge  of  the  Reid 
Memorial  to  succeed  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Barron,  who  had 
resigned  to  accept  a  call  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  at 
Elkins,  West  Virginia.  The  amount  appropriated  by  the 
session  for  the  work  at  Reid  Memorial  for  the  year  1903  was 
$3,500. 

In  October  1903  the  session,  upon  the  initiative  and  under 
the  leadership  of  Dr.  Guthrie,  established  and  took  under 
its  care  a  Presbyterian  Deaconesses'  Home  at  Baltimore, 
being  the  first  institution  of  its  kind  organized  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  America.  Its 
objects  were,  ist:  To  provide  an  education  and  training 
for  suitable  women  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  for  service 
in  its  congregations  and  mission  work ;  and  2nd :  To  main- 
tain a  home  for  Deaconesses  who  may  desire  to  remain  in 
connection  with  the  Institution  and  exercise  their  calling 
under  its  direction.  It  was  supported  by  funds  subscribed 
for  the  purpose  by  members  of  the  congregation  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  and  others,  supplemented  by 
appropriations  made  by  the  session  from  the  benevolent 
fund  of  the  church.  It  was  started  in  a  small  rented  house, 
No.  925  E.  Preston  Street  with  Dr.  Charlotte  S.  Murdoch, 
(the  daughter  of  an  elder  of  the  First  Church,  who  had 
just  passed  through  the  necessary  preparatory  training  in 
the  Lutheran  Deaconess  Home  at  Baltimore,)  as  Superin- 
tendent. She  subsequently  married  Dr.  Andrew  Young 
and  went  with  him  to  China  where  both  are  now  serving 


REYNOLDS  99 

as  Medical  Missionaries  under  the  Scotch  Baptist  Society. 
There  were  three  other  Deaconesses  in  training  with  Rev. 
John  S.  Conning  as  minister  in  charge.  Several  months 
later,  on  January  14,  1904  the  session  of  the  First  Church 
adopted  the  following  resolutions  concerning  this  under- 
taking on  its  part: 

1.  That  the  session  of  this  church  considers  the  work  of 
the  Deaconesses'  Home  one  for  the  church  at  large,  although 
undertaken  by  the  First  Church,  and  it  earnestly  hopes 
the  day  will  come  when  it  may  prove  its  usefulness  in  the 
larger  Presbyterian  community. 

2.  That  it  is  the  policy  of  the  session  to  carry  on  the  work 
of  the  Deaconesses'  Home  with  a  view  to  the  election  of  a 
General  Board  of  Directors  at  some  time  and  in  such  manner 
as  this  session  may  deem  advisable — the  Board  thus  cre- 
ated to  have  powers  such  as  usually  pertain  to  such  Boards 
and  to  assume  the  financial  support  of  the  Institution. 

3.  That  this  session  through  the  pastor  in  charge  of  the 
Home  is  desirous  of  announcing  to  the  other  churches  its 
poKcy  as  above  declared  in  regard  to  the  future  of  this 
work. 

The  hope  thus  expressed  was  speedily  realized,  and  the  work 
of  the  Deaconesses'  Home  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  promi- 
nent Presbyterians  all  over  the  country.  Soon  the  session 
was  overwhelmed  with  more  volunteers  for  the  work  than 
it  had  the  means  to  accommodate,  and  more  applications 
from  the  congregations,  in  and  out  of  the  city  for  the  services 
of  deaconesses  than  it  was  able  to  supply. 

The  modern  developement  of  the  Deaconess  movement 
began  in  1836  when  pastor  Fliedner  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
at  Kaiserwerth   founded  in  that  city  the  first  Deaconesses' 


lOO  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

Institution,  which  has  since  so  developed  that  there  are  now, 
in  connection  with  the  Kaiserwerth  Conference,  eighty 
Mother  houses,  or  Deaconesses'  Institutions,  having  asso- 
ciated with  them  eighteen  thousand  deaconesses.  The  move- 
ment was  introduced  into  America  in  1849  t>y  Dr.  W.  A.  Pas- 
savant  of  Pittsburg.  Little  progress  was  made  for  a  period 
of  about  25  years;  but  since  then  it  has  spread  rapidly  in 
all  the  leading  denominations,  and  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  forty  Deaconesses'  Institutions  have  been  founded 
within  the  last  fifteen  years  in  the  United  States  alone.  The 
movement  was  first  introduced  into  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  1889  when  the  Deaconesses'  Institution  and 
Training  School  in  Edinburgh  was  established  under  the 
authority  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. In  1892  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  adopted  the  follow- 
ing resolution :  ' '  That  this  General  Assembly  recognizes  the 
imperative  need  for  a  more  systematic  training  of  women 
workers,  which  shall  adapt  them  to  the  opening  spheres  of 
work  at  home  and  abroad  and  earnestly  recommends  to 
the  Synods  and  Presbyteries,  the  establishment,  as  oppor- 
tunity offers,  of  institutions  and  training  homes  for  the 
instruction  and  training  of  godly  women  duly  recommended 
by  sessions  and  presbyteries  for  practical  Christian  work." 
It  was  a  Httle  over  eleven  years  after  the  passage  of  this 
resolution  that  the  session  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
began  the  work  of  carrying  out  the  recommendation  thereby 
made  by  establishing  the  first  Presbyterian  Deaconesses' 
Home  in  America.  So  soon  as  the  movement  was  actually 
started  it  received  the  commendation  and  hearty  support 
of  leading  Presbyterians  throughout  the  country,  among 


REYNOLDS  lOI 

whom  may  be  named  Professor  Benjamin  B.  Wariield  of 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  Rev.  Hugh  Black  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  Rev.  Wallace  A.  Radcliffe  of 
Washington  City,  Rev.  Marcus  A.  Bronson  of  Philadelphia, 
Rev.  Charles  N.  Erdman  of  Germantown,  Rev.  J.  Ross 
Stevenson  of  New  York  and  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

In  an  article  contributed  to  the  Presbyterian  Journal  by 
Rev.  Wilfred  W.  Shaw  in  November  1903  several  weeks 
after  the  Deaconess  Home  had  been  opened,  it  is  thus 
described:  ''A  project  has  lately  been  started  in  Balti- 
more which  has  already  created  considerable  interest,  and 
which  is  sure  to  do  still  more  so  in  the  future.  This  is  the 
Deaconess  Home  estabhshed  in  connection  with  the  First 
Church.  While  there  are  instances  of  individual  deacon- 
esses working  in  some  Presbyterian  Churches  this  is,  so  far 
as  known,  the  first  move  outside  of  individual  congregations 
to  provide  deaconesses  for  the  Presbyterian  Church  at 
large.  Some  years  ago  Dr.  Warfield,  we  believe,  brought 
the  matter  up  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  it  was  sent 
down  to  the  Presbyteries,  and  seemed  so  far  as  is  known 
content  to  stay  there.  The  Home  just  established  has  grown 
out  of  the  needs  of  the  field.  Reid  Memorial  Church,  a 
child  of  the  First  Church,  is  in  the  midst  of  a  densely  popu- 
lated district  in  the  eastern  part  of  Baltimore;  and  it  was 
found  that  something  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  methods 
of  church  work  was  needed  to  reach  the  people.  The 
solution  of  the  problem  seemed  to  He  in  more  effective 
personal  contact.  How  was  this  to  be  brought  about?  No 
pastor  was  able  to  meet  all  the  demands  of  the  case  and  it 
was  felt  that  to  have  the  best  results  there  must  be  trained 


I02  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

workers.  To  provide  for  these  after  much  dehberation 
the  Deaconess  Home  was  estabhshed.  A  plain,  comfortable 
house  925  East  Preston  Street  has  been  rented  for  a  year, 
and  here  the  beginnings  of  a  work  which  is  surely  destined 
to  develope  largely  in  the  future  are  to  be  seen."  After 
describing  the  building  and  plant  he  continues:  "At 
present  there  are  five  Deaconesses  in  the  Home,  but  other 
applications  are  already  on  file  and  the  number  will  soon 
be  increased.  No  better  selection  could  have  been  made 
for  the  head  of  the  Home  than  the  one  chosen,  Dr.  Charlotte 
S.  Murdoch.  The  daughter  of  an  honored  Presbyterian 
elder,  Dr.  Russell  Murdoch — a  graduate  in  medicine,  a  cul- 
tured Christian  lady,  and  a  most  attractive  personality, — 
the  directors  of  the  Home  are  to  be  congratulated  in  securing 
such  an  one  to  guide  the  affairs  at  the  beginning. 

''At  present  the  work  is  divided  into  five  sections  and 
each  deaconess  takes  up  each  branch  in  rotation.  There 
is  the  Home  deaconess;  the  one  who  works  in  connection 
with  the  Kindergarten;  the  parish  visitor;  the  Sabbath 
School  visitor,  and  the  one  who  works  among  the  sick. 

"  In  addition  to  the  practical  work  Dr.  Charlotte  Murdoch 
lectures  several  times  a  week  to  the  probationers  on  anatomy, 
nursing  and  medical  hygiene.  Dr.  Guthrie,  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  gives  instruction  in  Christian  doctrine  and 
church  history.  Rev.  J.  S.  Conning,  pastor  of  the  Reid 
Memorial  Church,  who  is  very  closely  identified  with  the 
work  of  the  Home,  has  classes  for  Bible  Study,  pastoral 
theology,  psychology  and  pedagogics.  In  addition  to  these 
various  courses  of  lectures  are  being  arranged  to  be  under- 
taken by  different  neighboring  pastors. 

"The  aim  is  to  fit  the  deaconesses  for  thorough  work  in 


REYNOLDS  IO3 

any  of  our  churches.  Practical  training  is  given  in  teaching, 
the  care  of  the  sick  and  such  parish  work  as  may  be  properly 
assigned  to  a  deaconess  in  a  modern  church.  For  the  first 
three  months  after  coming  to  the  Home  they  are  in  the  posi- 
tion of  candidates;  then  for  two  years  or  more  probationers, 
and  after  that  deaconesses,  when  they  are  available  for  work 
in  the  individual  churches. 

"Those  who  enter  take  no  vow  or  pledge  of  any  kind, 
and  are  free  to  leave  at  any  time  on  giving  due  notice.  At 
the  same  time  it  is  expected  that  those  who  apply  for 
admission  shall  be  fully  persuaded  that  the  work  of  a  deacon- 
ess is  their  providential  calling  not  to  be  lightly  undertaken 
or  lightly  laid  aside.  If  the  candidate  is  accepted  at  the 
close  of  the  three  months,  the  Home  assumes  all  responsibility 
for  board,  lodging  and  maintenance  during  the  rest  of  the 
life  of  the  deaconess  provided  she  retains  her  connection 
with  the  Home.  They  will  be  cared  for  in  sickness  and 
old  age  as  well  as  when  engaged  in  active  work.  When 
any  individual  church  wishes  to  secure  the  services  of  a 
worker  all  arrangements  for  this  are  made  directly  with 
the  Home  and  not  with  the  individual  deaconesses  who  go 
where  the  Home  sends  them. 

"At  present  the  First  Church  has  assumed  all  the  finan- 
cial obUgation  of  this  work;  but  if  it  develops  in  the  future 
as  is  expected  the  basis  of  support  may  probably  be  enlarged 
also.  At  present  there  is  not  accommodation  in  the  Home 
for  more  than  eight,  but  if  more  suitable  applicants  present 
themselves,  further  accommodations  will  be  secured. 

"Already  to  the  minds  of  the  promoters  there  are  visions 
of  a  Mother  Deaconess'  Home  from  which  supplies  of 
trained  competent  workers  can  be  drawn,  not  simply  to  aid 


I04  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

in  Christian  work  in  our  city  churches  at  home  but  to  go 
out  to  our  far-off  mission  fields  and  by  the  skilled,  effective 
and  loving  service  which  they  shall  render,  bring  about 
more  speedily  the  glad  day  when  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

Within  two  years  after  this  enterprise  was  launched  the 
vision  of  its  founders  of  a  Mother  Deaconesses'  Home  began 
to  be  reahzed.  In  January  1905  Mrs.  John  S.  Oilman,  a 
member  of  the  First  Church,  bought  the  large  building  at 
the  Northwest  corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and  Preston 
Street,  then  occupied  by  the  Egenton  Orphan  Asylum,  an 
institution  under  the  care  of  the  First  Church,  and  offered 
to  give  it  for  the  use  of  a  Deaconesses'  Home  whenever  such 
an  Institution  should  be  established  by  the  Presbyterians 
of  Baltimore,  and  on  April  28,  of  the  same  year  the  Presby- 
terian Deaconess  Home  and  Training  School  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore  was  duly  incorporated  and  its  management 
vested  in  a  Board  of  twelve  directors  consisting  of  Prof. 
Benjamin  B.  Warfield  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary, 
Rev.  Wallace  A.  RadcHffe  of  Washington,  D.C.,  Rev. 
Marcus  A.  Bronson  of  Philadelphia,  Rev.  Donald  Outhrie, 
Rev.  Robert  P.  Kerr,  Rev.  John  P.  Campbell  of  Baltimore, 
Dr.  Edward  H.  Oriffin  and  Mr.  Ehsha  H.  Perkins  of  the 
First  Church,  Mr.  Robert  Oarrett  and  Dr.  John  M.  T. 
Finney  of  Brown  Memorial  Church,  Messrs.  Robert  H. 
Smith  of  the  Second  Church  and  Theodore  K.  Miller  of  the 
Central  Presbyterian  Church  of  Baltimore  City.  Of  these 
Dr.  Guthrie  was  elected  President,  Dr.  RadcUffe,  Vice- 
President  and  Mr.  Robert  Garrett,  Treasurer.  Rev.  John  S. 
Conning  was  appointed  Superintendent,  and  the  Deaconess 


REYNOLDS  105 

Home  became  from  this  time  forward  a  distinct  self-govern- 
ing organization  independent  of  the  First  Church. 

On  April  25,  1904,  the  congregation  at  the  Reid  Memorial 
was  organized  by  the  Presbytery  as  a  separate  church  with 
the  Rev.  John  S.  Conning  as  its  pastor. 

On  June  i,  1905,  was  formed  the  Men's  Society  of  the 
First  Church  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  church  work 
in  the  congregation  along  rehgious,  social  and  benevolent 
lines. 

On  November  28,  1905,  the  Egenton  Orphan  Asylum,  a 
private  eleemosynary  institution  incorporated  by  the  State 
of  Maryland  in  the  year  i860  in  furtherance  of  a  bequest 
in  the  will  of  WilHam  Egenton,  a  member  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  who  died  in  February  1836,  moved 
into  its  new  buildings  on  Merryman  and  Cedar  Avenues. 
By  the  provisions  of  the  will  of  the  Founder  and  of  its 
charter  this  institution  has  always  been  under  the  control 
of  a  board  of  twelve  managers,  annually  elected  by  the 
adult  male  communicant  members  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  from  their  own  munber,  together  with  the 
pastor  of  said  church  for  the  time  being,  and  has  been  for 
this  reason  so  intimately  connected  with  the  Church,  that 
it  is  deemed  proper  to  include  its  history  in  that  of  the 
Church. 

Mr.  Egenton  had  an  only  daughter  who  died  before  him 
when  only  five  or  six  years  old.  She  had  early  shown  a 
marked  and  precocious  fondness  for  looking  after  and  taking 
care  of  all  the  younger  children  with  whom  she  came  into 
contact,  and  was  constantly  insisting  upon  having  them 
call  her  their  ''Little  Mother.' '     Her  father,  greatly  pleased 


Io6  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

with  this  trait  one  day  promised  her  that  he  would  make 
her  a  mother  indeed  to  a  great  many  little  children.  After 
her  death  he  sought  to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  this  promise 
by  making  a  will  whereby  he  bequeathed  the  entire  residue 
of  his  estate,  after  payment  of  debts  and  legacies,  to  his 
executors  in  trust  for  the  purpose  of  estabHshing  in  the 
city  of  Baltimore  an  Institute  for  the  Support  of  Destitute 
White  Female  Orphan  Children,  to  be  under  the  manage- 
ment and  control  of  twelve  persons  therein  named  and  the 
pastor  for  the  time  being  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  City  of  Baltimore,  and  in  case  of  any  of  said  managers  de- 
clining to  serve,  dying,  or  removing  to  a  distance,  he  directed 
the  remaining  managers  to  supply  their  places  by  choosing 
others  from  among  the  adult  male  members  of  said  Church 
in  full  communion  therewith  so  as  to  keep  up  the  number 
of  twelve  managers  besides  the  Pastor. 

On  November  20,  1859  ^^^  survivors  of  the  managers 
named  in  the  will  met  and  after  fiUing  the  vacancies  in 
their  number  by  electing  six  new  managers  in  the  place  of 
those  who  had  died,  determined  to  apply  for  an  act  of 
incorporation  under  the  name  of  the  Egenton  Orphan 
Asylum  of  the  City  of  Baltimore,  which  was  granted  by  the 
legislature  and  issued  under  the  seal  of  the  State  of  Mary- 
land on  March  10,  i860.  After  the  formal  acceptance  of 
this  charter  on  April  23,  i860  at  a  meeting  called  and  an 
election  of  managers  held  thereunder,  nothing  further  was 
done  by  the  board  towards  estabUshing  the  proposed  Asylum 
until  November  29,  1875,  when  for  the  first  time  they  felt 
that  the  accumulations  of  the  residue  of  the  Egenton  Estate 
which  then  amounted  to  $38,174.07  were  sufficient  to 
warrant  them  in  undertaking  it.     In  December  1879  they 


REYNOLDS  107 

purchased  the  house  and  lot  corner  of  Preston  Street  and 
Madison  Avenue,  and  on  April  8,  1880  opened  the  Asylum 
which  on  October  following  received  its  first  orphans  six 
in  number.  By  May  19,  1882  these  had  increased  to  seven- 
teen and  only  one  more  was  received  during  the  next  five 
years;  but  after  July  1887  the  number  of  girls  was  gradually 
increased  to  thirty  which  was  about  as  many  as  the  building 
could  then  conveniently  accommodate.  It  was  originally 
managed  by  a  Matron  who  was  under  the  supervision  of 
a  visiting  committee  of  twenty-seven  ladies  appointed 
annually  by  the  Managers  from  the  membership  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church.  Three  of  these  visiting  ladies 
filled  the  positions  of  President,  Vice-President  and  Secre- 
tary of  their  committee  and  the  remaining  twenty-four 
took  turns,  two  of  them  going  each  month,  to  visit  and 
supervise  the  Matron.  The  divergencies  in  the  views  of 
the  successive  supervisors  having  from  time  to  time  created 
some  friction  in  administration,  it  was  in  February  1894 
decided  at  the  request  of  the  ladies  to  discontinue  their 
Visiting  Committee,  and  vest  the  entire  administration  of  the 
Asylum  in  one  Principal  who  should  be  directly  responsible 
to  the  Board  of  Managers  alone,  and  on  April  27,  1894  the 
first  Principal  Miss  AHce  Haines  was  elected. 

At  the  time  the  Executor  and  Trustee  under  Mr.  Egenton's 
will  turned  over  the  residue  of  his  estate  to  the  Managers 
of  the  Asylum  in  October  1880,  this  residue  consisted 
principally  of  real  estate  in  Baltimore  City  and  a  lot  in  New 
York  City  fronting  100  feet  on  Third  Ave.,  with  depth  of 
250  feet  on  84th  Street,  then  leased  to  a  tenant  who  paid 
the  rent  of  $1,400  a  year,  most  of  which  was  absorbed  by 
the  taxes  and  necessary  repairs.     In  searching  the  title  to 


I08  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

this  property  incidentally  to  making  a  new  lease  serious 
defects  were  found  in  it  and  prompt  steps  were  taken  to 
cure  them.  All  the  Baltimore  heirs-at-law  of  Mr.  Egen- 
ton  representing  three-fifths  interest,  voluntarily  executed 
quit-claim  deeds  to  the  Asylum,  and  a  Mr.  Willis  of  New 
York  who  was  entitled  to  control  an  undivided  one-fifth 
interest  in  any  property  of  the  Founder  of  which  he  died  in- 
testate, agreed  to  procure  a  perfectly  good  title  to  the  Asyl- 
lum  for  this  and  the  remaining  outstanding  one-fifth  interest 
in  the  property  on  payment  of  $7,000  and  the  execution  to 
him  of  a  lease  for  21  years  with  specified  rights  of  renewal 
thereafter,  at  the  annual  amount  of  $3,500,  he  paying  all 
taxes  and  assessments.  This  offer  of  Mr.  Willis  was  accepted 
but  subsequently  the  board  became  involved  in  litigation 
with  him,  which  was  finally  settled  in  December  1881  by 
payment  to  him  of  a  certain  sum  of  money  in  full  satis- 
faction of  all  his  claims  against  the  property  and  against 
the  Asylum. 

The  property  was  subsequently  divided  into  ten  lots, 
four  of  them  fronting  on  Third  Avenue  and  the  others  on 
Eighty-fourth  Street,  and  each  of  them  leased  for  a  term  of 
twenty-one  years  with  rights  of  renewal  for  two  more 
successive  terms  of  the  same  length  at  rents  aggregating 
$6,000  a  year  clear  of  all  taxes  and  expense  of  every  kind. 
The  effect  of  this  was  to  raise  the  income  of  the  Asylum 
to  an  amount  almost  double  that  of  its  expenditures  as 
then  conducted  and  to  thus  enable  the  Managers  to  invest 
from  $5,000  to  $6,000  every  year  in  good  securities  for  the 
Institution. 

In  February  1894,  the  Managers,  convinced  that  the 
building  corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and  Preston  Street 


REYNOLDS  109 

then  occupied  by  the  Asylum  was  inadequate  for  its  needs, 
appointed  a  committee  to  consider  the  propriety  of  buying 
a  lot  for  a  new  location,  but  no  site  was  determined  upon 
until  more  than  two  years  later,  when  a  tract  of  eight  and 
and  one  half  acres  of  land  at  the  corner  of  Merryman's  Lane 
and  Cedar  Avenue  was  bought  from  the  estate  of  the  late 
John  W.  Garrett  in  August  1896,  and  an  architect  was 
employed  to  prepare  plans  for  suitable  buildings,  which 
were  duly  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Managers.  Owing 
however  to  the  general  financial  disturbances  which  began 
to  prevail  at  that  time  the  project  of  building  was  tempo- 
rarily laid  aside.  No  definite  course  was  agreed  upon  until 
November  3,  1904,  when  it  was  resolved  to  erect  a  new 
building  upon  the  Cedar  Avenue  lot  and  new  plans  were 
prepared  and  considered.  On  December  16,  of  the  same 
year  a  committee  was  appointed  to  visit  and  inspect  as 
many  of  the  best  appointed  Orphan  Asylums  as  could  be 
reached  within  a  convenient  distance  of  Baltimore  and  to 
report  at  an  early  day  to  the  Board  of  Managers;  and  on 
January  23,  1905,  this  committee  made  its  report  recom- 
mending that  the  Asylum  should  hereafter  be  conducted 
on  what  is  known  as  the  ''Household  System"  and  that 
there  should  be  three  separate  buildings  each  of  them  built 
to  accommodate  one  of  the  three  separate  households.  This 
report,  which  necessitated  an  entire  renovation  of  the  plans 
theretofore  under  consideration,  was  adopted  after  a  full  dis- 
cussion and  the  buildings  now  occupied  were  erected  in 
accordance  with  the  Committee's  recommendation.  The 
Asylum  was  removed  to  them  a  few  weeks  later  than  twenty- 
five  years  after  the  date  of  its  first  opening  on  Madison 
Avenue,  and  it  is  confidently  hoped  that  the  experience  of 


no  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

its  second  quarter  of  a  century,  beginning  in  its  new  and 
admirably  equipped  buildings  and  with  its  new  name  of 
the  Egenton  Home  conferred  by  an  amendment  to  its 
Charter  approved  March  15,  1906,  will  prove  even  more 
gratifying  and  successful  than  that  of  its  first  twenty-five 
years. 

Its  records  show  that  eighty-seven  girls  were  received 
into  the  Asylum  down  to  the  time  of  its  removal.  Of  these 
one  had  died  of  diphtheria  eight  years  before,  six  had  been 
formally  adopted  as  children  into  the  famiHes  of  well-to- 
do  persons,  five  had  been  dismissed  because  their  further 
continuance  in  the  Institution  was  deemed  to  be  inadvisable, 
ten  under  twelve  years  had  been  discharged  to  the  care  of 
relatives,  who  desired  to  assume  the  charge  and  were  in 
circumstances  which  enabled  them  to  do  so  in  a  manner 
that  the  Managers  considered  to  be  for  the  best  interest 
of  the  children,  for  thirty- three  more  after  remaining  in 
the  Asylum  until  they  had  reached  or  nearly  reached  the 
age  of  eighteen  years  there  were  found  situations  in  which 
they  were  able  to  earn  a  decent  support  and  in  almost  every 
case  they  have  turned  out  to  be  young  women  who  have 
proved  themselves  a  credit  to  the  Institution  and  have 
daily  cause  to  bless  the  memory  of  that  '' Little  Mother" 
for  whose  sake  the  founder  was  moved  to  provide  the  means 
to  receive,  shelter,  care  for  and  educate  them  during  the 
helpless  years  of  childhood.  The  remaining  thirty- two 
girls  continued  inmates  of  the  Home  after  removal  to  its 
new  quarters. 

The  new  buildings  consist  of  three  separate  two  story 
and  a  half  brick  enclosures  with  slate  roofs  connected  by 
open  porticos  and  known  as  East  Cottage,  Central  Cottage 


REYNOLDS  III 

and  West  Cottage  respectively.  Each  of  these  Cottages 
is  intended  to  accommodate  a  family  of  from  seventeen  to 
twenty-one  girls  besides  the  Cottage  Mothers.  The 
Central  Cottage  which  is  larger  than  the  others,  is  also  to 
be  used  as  an  administration  building,  containing  the  Mana- 
ger's Room,  Superintendent's  office  and  Hving  quarters, 
Spence  Hall,  School  room,  Gymnasium,  Laundry,  and 
Library,  in  addition  to  the  quarters  provided  for  the  family 
of  girls  living  there.  The  buildings  are  well  equipped  with 
furnace  heat,  water  and  electric  light.  Owing  to  the  small 
number  of  girls,  who  have  not  often  exceeded  thirty  at  one 
time,  the  East  Cottage  has  never  been  used.  The  buildings 
were  erected  and  equipped  at  an  original  cost  of  a  little  over 
$76,000  and  the  invested  funds  of  the  Home  yield  at  the 
present  time  an  annual  income  of  $11,500,  the  current 
expenses  for  the  year  averaging  about  $1,000  less.  These 
figures  compared  with  the  $38,174.07  turned  over  to  them 
by  Mr.  Egenton's  Executor  in  November  1875  together 
with  the  New  York  property  with  a  defective  title  and  then 
yielding  little  or  no  income  make  a  most  creditable  showing 
for  the  financial  management  of  the  Managers  during  the 
long  period  of  thirty-eight  years,  during  which  it  has  been 
under  their  control,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that 
a  great  measure  of  their  success  must  be  attributed  to  the 
good  judgment  and  untiring  labor  of  Mr.  Wm.  W.  Spence, 
who  has  been  their  Treasurer  from  the  beginning  to  the 
present  time,  and  has  always  taken  the  deepest  interest 
in  the  Home. 

On  December  2,  1906  individual  communion  cups  were 
first  used  at  the  administration  of  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  on  December  1 2,  of  the  same  year  Messrs. 


1 1 2  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

Colin  Grant,  Calvin  W.  Hendrick  and  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner 
were  elected  ruling  elders.  The  two  first  named  were  in- 
stalled and  Dr.  Steiner  was  ordained  on  January  6,  1907. 

Early  in  the  fall  of  1907  the  monthly  concerts  of  prayer 
for  foreign  missions,  which  had  for  some  years  past  been 
discontinued,  were  resumed  regularly  at  the  Wednesday 
evening  service.  On  October  18,  the  session  adopted 
Paoting-fu,  China,  as  its  parish  abroad  and  the  object  to 
the  support  of  which  its  contributions  for  foreign  missions 
should  be  thereafter  offered,  in  place  of  supporting  specially 
named  missionaries  as  heretofore;  and  in  February  1908, 
the  Men's  Society  undertook  the  support  of  Dr.  Charles 
Lewis,  Medical  Missionary  at  Paoting-fu,  at  a  salary  of 
$6co  per  annum. 

In  October  1908,  the  session  of  the  Reid  Memorial  Church 
in  view  of  the  removal  of  families  from  its  vicinity  and  of 
the  increasing  difficulty  of  getting  new  families  into  the 
church  because  of  marked  changes  in  the  character  of  the 
population  in  the  neighborhood  and  because  of  the  apparent 
inability  of  the  congregation  to  render  adequate  financial 
support,  and  because  of  the  resignation  of  its  pastor  and  a 
widespread  disintegration  which  followed  his  resignation 
and  in  view  of  the  cordial  assurance  of  welcome  to  the  mem- 
bership of  Faith  Church  extended  by  its  session,  advised  its 
members  to  apply  for  letters  of  dismissal  to  Faith  Church. 
Most  of  them  did  this  and,  the  congregation  was  dissolved 
by  the  presbytery,  early  in  February  1909,  which  restored 
the  use  of  the  building  of  Reid  Memorial  Mission  to  the 
First  Church.  The  session  being  unwilhng  to  undertake 
the  charge  of  estabhshing  a  new  mission  work  there  at  this 
time,  the  Committee  on  April  8,  1909  leased  the  premises 


\ 


REYNOLDS  II3 

at  a  nominal  rent  for  the  term  of  one  year  to  the  Presby- 
terian Deaconess  Home  and  Training  School  ''to  be  used 
and  occupied  for  the  proper  uses  and  purposes  of  its  work 
in  charitable  and  institutional  lines  in  no  manner  incon- 
sistent with  the  gift  of  the  buildings  on  said  premises  upon 
condition  that  it  would  neither  use  or  permit  the  use  of 
said  property  or  any  part  thereof  for  any  other  purpose 
whatsoever." 

A  year  afterwards  a  society  called  the  Reid  Memorial 
Guild,  consisting  of  representatives  appointed  by  the 
several  cooperating  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Baltimore 
Presbytery,  the  Deaconess  Society  and  the  Deaconess 
Home  and  individuals  enrolKng  themselves  therewith  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  personal  service  or  financial  aid,  was 
organized  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Richard  D.  Fisher, 
Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  the  church,  to  promote  the 
adequate  use  of  the  Reid  Memorial  building  by  maintaining 
cooperative  work,  religious  and  social,  through  the  Presby- 
terian Churches  and  the  Deaconess  Home  and  Training 
School.  In  the  fall  of  19 10  this  Guild  started  a  Christian 
settlement  house,  a  Sunday  School  and  a  kindergarten 
and  the  following  year  began  mission  work  among  the  large 
Italian  population  in  the  neighborhood  many  of  whom 
seemed  to  have  abandoned  all  their  previous  church  affilia- 
tion since  coming  to  America.  Their  head  worker  during 
the  first  year  was  Miss  Helen  Bachrach  of  the  Babcock 
Memorial  Church  with  Miss  Docherty,  a  senior  deaconess, 
as  her  assistant.  Miss  Docherty  succeeded  Miss  Bachrach 
as  head  worker  after  the  latter's  resignation  on  September 
I,  1911. 

On  September  26,  1909,  Mr.  Wesley  Baker  of  Toronto, 


114  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

Canada,  a  student  preparing  for  the  ministry,  was  engaged 
for  one  year  as  assistant  to  the  minister  and  taken  under 
the  care  of  the  Baltimore  Presbytery;  and  on  December  6, 
1909,  Mr.  Elisha  H.  Perkins,  who  had  been  clerk  of  the 
session  for  nearly  28  years,  presented  his  resignation  to  take 
effect  at  the  end  of  the  year  and  Dr.  Bernard  C.  Steiner  was 
elected  as  his  successor. 

On  April  7,  1910,  Rev.  Donald  Guthrie  addressed  com- 
munications to  the  session  and  the  Presbytery  of  Baltimore 
resigning  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Church  for  the  reasons 
that  the  health  of  his  son  rendered  it  impossible  to  continue 
to  reside  in  the  city  and  because  his  lameness,  from  which 
there  then  seemed  no  prospect  of  recovery,  incapacitated 
him,  often  in  a  very  painful  way,  from  fulfilHng  his  pastor- 
al duties.  He  asked  the  congregation  to  unite  with  him 
in  his  appUcation  to  the  Presbytery  for  a  severance  of  the 
pastoral  relation.  In  explanation  to  this  it  may  be  here 
stated  that  in  January  1906  Dr.  Guthrie  had  a  severe  attack 
of  inflamatory  rhuematism  due  to  a  gunshot  wound  received 
by  him  as  a  boy,  but  which  apparently  had  been  entirely 
healed.  He  was  obliged  to  go  to  the  hospital  to  submit  to 
several  surgical  operations  which  detained  him  there  for 
four  or  five  months  and  disabled  him  from  resuming  his 
pastoral  duties  until  September  of  that  year.  On  the  fol- 
lowing February  1907  he  was  obhged  to  return  to  the  hos- 
pital and  remain  until  the  summer  and  was  unable  to 
enter  the  pulpit  again  before  October  3  of  that  year.  The 
surgical  operations  he  underwent  caused  the  shortening 
of  one  of  his  legs  and  a  permanent  lameness  which  greatly 
interfered  with  his  powers  of  locomotion,  and  at  times 
subjected  him  to  acute  physical  suffering  so  as  to  render 
pastoral  visitation  practically  impossible. 


REYNOLDS  II5 

At  a  congregational  meeting  held  on  May  4,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  accede  to  Dr.  Guthrie's  request  and  commissioners 
were  appointed  to  appear  before  the  presbytery  on  behalf 
of  the  congregation  and  to  give  its  consent  to  the  disso- 
lution of  the  pastoral  relation.  At  this  meeting  resolutions 
were  passed  expressing  the  deepest  regret  and  sorrow  that 
the  illness  of  his  son  and  his  own  physical  disability  were  of 
so  serious  a  nature  as  to  induce  his  resignation,  and  extend- 
ing him  sincere  sympathy.  The  resolutions  also  testified 
to  the  zeal,  suggestiveness  and  good  judgment  shown  by 
Dr.  Guthrie  in  directing  the  activities  of  the  church  and 
congregation  during  his  pastorate  and  to  his  earnest  efforts 
towards  the  maintenance  and  increase  of  the  benevolent 
contributions.  They  further  recalled  that  to  his  initiative 
was  due  the  organization  of  the  Men's  Society;  and  that 
the  Deaconess  Home — an  institution  which  gives  promise 
of  extensive  usefulness  throughout  the  entire  Presbyterian 
Church — was  established  in  accordance  with  his  plans  and 
under  his  influence;  that  as  a  member  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Baltimore  he  had  been  particularly  useful  and  influential, 
and  that  as  chairman  of  its  Home  Mission  Committee  he 
was  the  originator  of  a  plan, — lately  put  in  force — for 
increasing  the  salaries  of  pastors  and  aiding  new  and  weak 
churches,  which  had  already  accompKshed  excellent  results; 
and  they  also  bore  witness  to  his  having  taken  part  in 
various  movements  of  a  general  character  in  the  community 
in  which  he  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  pubhc-spirited 
citizen.  They  might  also  have  well  added  that  he  was  an 
able,  effective  and  popular  preacher,  and  possessed  besides 
a  personal  charm  of  manner  most  attractive  to  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DR.  BARR's  pastorate  1911- 

The  presbytery  on  May  6,  1910,  dissolved  the  pastoral 
relation  and  at  a  congregational  meeting  held  on  May  11  a 
committee  of  nine  members  representing  the  session,  the 
committee  and  the  congregation  at  large  was  appointed 
to  select  and  recommend  a  minister  for  the  church.  This 
committee  reported  to  the  congregational  meeting  held 
February  21,  191 1  advising  that  a  call  be  extended  to 
Rev.  Alfred  H.  Barr,  D.D.,  minister  of  the  Jefferson  Ave- 
nue Presbyterian  Church  at  Detroit,  Michigan,  who  was 
accordingly  unanimously  elected  and  called  forthwith.  The 
call  was  accepted  and  he  came  to  Baltimore  and  preached 
his  first  sermon  on  Sunday  May  7,  191 1  and  was  duly 
installed  by  the  presbytery  as  pastor  on  the  following 
Thursday. 

It  may  be  well  at  this  point  to  glance  at  the  changes 
which  had  taken  place  in  existing  positions  during  the 
thirty-one  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  beginning  of 
Dr.  Leftwich's  ministry  in  1879.  The  congregation  then 
consisted  mainly  of  members  who  had  either  personally 
or  through  their  famihes  been  connected  with  the  church 
for  twenty,  thirty  or  even  fifty  years,  many  of  them  the 
descendants  of  those  who  wxre  in  the  church  during  the 
pastorates  of  its  first  three  ministers,  many  lived  near  the 
church  and  were  more  or  less  alHed  to  each  other  by  ties  of 
kinship,  affinity  or  long  continued  and  traditional  close 

116 


REYNOLDS  II7 

personal  intimacy.  The  result  of  this  was  to  give  the 
congregation  a  degree  of  permanence  and  solidarity  rarely 
found  in  the  churches  of  this  country  and  well  illustrated 
by  the  way  in  which  it  held  together  during  the  long 
intervals  of  four  years  after  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Backus, 
of  two  years  after  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  and 
of  one  year  after  that  of  Dr.  Guthrie.  During  all  these 
periods  the  attendance  of  the  congregation  at  the  regular 
services  and  the  amount  of  its  contributions  to  religious  and 
benevolent  objects  were  not  materially  diminished.  Never- 
theless, great  changes  were  taking  place  in  the  personnel 
of  the  congregation  during  those  last  thirty  years,  as  old 
members  and  their  famihes  were  lost  by  death  or  removal 
and  new  members  were  added  many  of  whom  came  as 
comparative  strangers  into  the  congregation.  The  ten- 
dency of  the  resident  part  of  the  city  to  gravitate  to  the 
North  and  West,  the  smaller  size  of  families  among  the 
well-to-do  members  of  the  community,  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  apartment  houses  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
church  and  throughout  the  city  with  their  constantly 
changing  occupants,  so  unfavorable  to  the  maintenance  of 
permanent  family  home  Hfe  among  those  conveniently 
accessible  to  the  church,  all  contributed  their  part  to  these 
changes;  so  that  in  1910  it  appeared  that  out  of  a  session 
of  ten  elders  only  one,  and  out  of  a  committee  of  twelve 
trustees  only  five  had  been  baptised  in  the  church.  In 
former  days  the  Sunday  School  was  composed  mainly  of 
the  children  of  attendants  of  the  church,  but  at  the  present 
day  such  children  constitute  a  comparatively  small  minority 
of  the  scholars;  the  greater  number  being  now  generally 
gathered  in  from  outside  the  congregation.     Such  condi- 


1 18  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

tions  could  not  fail  to  impress  those  interested  in  the  fii.ure 
of  the  church  with  the  difficulty  which  it  must  inevitably 
meet  in  times  to  come  in  retaining  a  congregation  able  to 
provide  from  its  own  resources  the  income  required  to  main- 
tain its  services  and  at  the  same  time  carry  on  the  aggressive 
Christian  work  imposed  upon  it  by  the  responsibilities  of 
its  present  position  and  its  past  history,  and  to  suggest  the 
imperative  need  of  an  adequate  permanent  endowment  to 
supplement  the  regular  contributions  of  the  congregation. 

Deeply  impressed  with  this  need,  Dr.  Guthrie  as  early  as 
1905  conceived  and  began  to  urge  upon  some  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  congregation  a  plan  for  raising  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  as  a  permanent  endowment  fund  to  be  in- 
vested and  held  by  the  trustees,  the  income  thereof  to  be  ex- 
pended for  our  own  church  purposes  or  for  aggressive  Christian 
work  outside  of  our  immediate  parish,  and  on  April  of  that 
year  the  trustees  appointed  Dr.  Guthrie  and  its  secretary,  Mr. 
R.  D.  Fisher  a  committee  to  carry  out  this  design.  Three 
years  later  this  committee  reported  that  the  projected 
endowment  fund  was  then  represented  by  one  pledge  of 
$25,000  conditioned  on  the  subscription  of  $75,000  addi- 
tional, and  in  April  1909  the  committee  reported  two  addi- 
tional subscriptions  aggregating  $30,000  more,  making  in 
all  fifty-five  thousand  dollars,  upon  the  condition  that  the 
full  amount  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  should  be 
subscribed  before  January  i,  191 2.  The  Endowment  Fund 
Committee  was  thereupon  authorized  to  add  to  its  member- 
ship and  secure  subscriptions  up  to  a  total  of  $100,000. 
On  January  10,  1910,  the  committee  further  reported  an 
additional  subscription  of  $5,000  and  that  they  had  added 
20  more  members  to  their  number.     This  enlarged  com- 


REYNOLDS  II9 

mittee  soon  obtained  additional  subscriptions  which  raised 
the  total  amount  to  $67,300  where  it  stood  until  about  the 
first  of  April  191 1.  The  Endowment  Fund  Committee 
further  enlarged  to  thirty-five  members  then  took  the  mat- 
ter up  with  great  vigor  and  after  a  thorough  canvass  of 
the  congregation  obtained  before  the  end  of  May  pledges 
for  the  entire  amount  required  and  thus  completed  the  work 
of  securing  a  permanent  endowment  fund  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  This  was  done  in  the  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  year  after  the  presbytery  of  New  Castle  had  refused 
to  place  in  the  hands  of  Rev.  Hector  AHson  a  call  from  the 
Presbyterians  of  Baltimore  Town,  because  the  congre- 
gation was  small,  without  a  place  of  worship  and  unable  to 
support  a  minister. 


HISTORICAL  LIST  OF  THE  OFFICE-BEARERS  OF  THE 
FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

FROM  1763  TO  1913 

MINISTERS 

Patrick  Allison,  D.D 1763  to  1802 

James  Tnglts,  D.D 1802  to  1819 

William  Nevins,  D.D 1820  to  1835 

John  C.  Backus,  D.D.,  LL.D 1836  to  1879 

James  T.  Leftwich,  D.D 1879  to  1893 

Jere  Witherspoon,  D.D 1893  to  1897 

Donald  Guthrie,  D.D 1899  to  1910 

Alfred  H.  B arr,  D.D 1911  to 

ELDERS 

William  Lyon 1 781  to  

John  Smith 1781  to  ■ 

William  Buchanan 1781  to  

James  Sterret 1781  to  

William  Smith 1 797  to 

William  Buchanan 1797  to  

Robert  Purviance 1797  to  

James  Calhoun 1797  to  

Robert  Gilmor 1797  to  • 

DAvm  Stewart 1797  to  1817. 

Christopher  Johnston 1797  to  1817. 

Robert  Purviance 1804  to  1806. 

George  Salmon 1804  to  1807. 

Ebenezer  Finley 1804  to  1817. 

John  McKeen 1809  to  181 7. 

Stewart  Brown 1809  to  1817. 

Maxwell  McDowell 1814  to  1817,  1829  to  1848. 

James  Mosher 1814  to  1817,  1818  to  1846. 

Thomas  Finley 1814  to  1817. 

David  W.  Boisseau 1814  to  1817. 

John  F.  Keys 1816  to  1817. 

William  W.  Taylor 1818  to  1830. 

James  Delacour 1819  to  1821. 

George  Morris 1829  to  1846. 

David  S.  Courtenay 1833  to  1840. 

John  N.  Brown 1833  to  1852. 

William  L.  Gill 1833  to  1880. 


REYNOLDS  121 

John  Rodcers 1840  to  1861. 

David  Stewart 1840  to  1S47. 

John  Falconer 1840  to  1847. 

William  W.  Spence 1848  to 

William  B.  Caxfield 1848  to  1S83. 

John  H.  Haskell 1861  to  1877. 

Alexander  M  .  Carter 1861  to  1S70. 

Elisha  H.  Perkins 1861  to  188S. 

Archibald  Stirling,  Jr 1861  to  1892, 

Russell  Murdoch 1881  to  1904. 

Elisha  H.  Perkins,  Jr 1881  to 

Edmund  F.  Witmer 1883  to  1904. 

John  V.  L.  Graham 1883  to  1899. 

William  Reynolds 1897  to 

William  H.  Dix 1897  to 

David  T.  Haynes 1901  to  1908. 

George  H.  Rodgers 1901  to  1905. 

Edward  H.  Griffin 1901  to 

G.  Frank  Baily 1902  to 

A.  Crawford  Smith 1902  to 

Colin  Grant 1907  to  1912. 

Calvin  W.  Hendrick 1907  to 

Bernard  C.  Steiner 1907  to 

DEACONS 

jAArcs  Stirling 1804  to  

John  McKeen 1804  to  1809. 

John  Taggart 1804  to  • 

Henry  C.  Turnbull 1840  to  1847. 

John  H.  Haskell 1840  to  1847. 

Moses  H\t)e 1840  to  1847. 

Lancaster  Ould 1840  to  1847. 

Daniel  Warfield,  Jr 1861  to  1870. 

Alexander  F.  Riach 1861  to  1870. 

J.  Franklin  Dix 1861  to  1870. 

George  H.  Rodgers 1861  to  1901. 

John  J.  Thomsen 1874  to  1892. 

Russell  Murdoch 1874  to  1881. 

John  V.  L.  Graham 1874  to  1883. 

Elisha  H.  Perkins,  Jr 1S74  to  1881. 

S.  W.  T.  Hopper  1883  to  18S7. 

William  Reynolds 1883  to  1897. 

George  K.  Witmer 1895  to  1901. 

William  H.  Dix 1895  to  1897. 

G.  Frank  Baily 1895  to  1902. 

G.  Lelper  Carey 1895  to  1911. 

Douglas  M.  Wylie 1895  to 

Edward  F.  Arthurs 1901  to  1909. 

C.  Braxton  Dallam 1901  to 

Harry  Fahnestock 1901  to 


122         FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 


A.  Crawford  Smith igoi  to  1902. 

Bernard  C.  Steiner 1901  to  1907. 

Murray  P.  Brush 1902  to 

Charles  J.  Keller 1902  to 

J.  Evans  Rodgers 1902  to 

THE  COMMITTEE  (or  Trustees) 

John  Smith 1764  to  1781. 

William  Lyon 1764  to  1781. 

William  Buchanan 1764  to  1781. 

William  Smith 1764  to  1814. 

William  Spear 1764  to  1790. 

James  Sterret 1764  to  1781. 

Jonathan  Plowman 1764  to  1794. 

Alexander  Stenhouse 1765  to  1775. 

John  Boyd 1765  to  1789. 

Robert  Purviance 1765  to  1806. 

Samuel  Purviance 1770  to  1787. 

John  Little 1770  to  1773. 

Samuel  Brown 1771 

James  Calhoun 1771  to  1817. 

William  Neill 1773  to  1785. 

Hugh  Young 1779  to  1783. 

John  Sterret 1779  to  1785. 

David  Stewart 1779  to  1818. 

Nathaniel  Smith 1779  to  1787. 

Joseph  Donaldson 1782  to  1785. 

Robert  Gilmor 1782  to  1822. 

Samuel  Smith 1782  to  1832. 

William  Patterson 1785  to  1811. 

Christopher  Johnston 1787  to  1819. 

George  Brown 1787  to  1821. 

Stephen  Wilson 1789  to  1794. 

John  Swann 1790  to  1818. 

William  Robb 1792  to  1804. 

J.  A.  Buchanan 1796  to  1810. 

George  Salmon 1804  to  1807. 

John  Stricker 1807  to  1S22. 

Stewart  Brown 1807  to  1832. 

James  McHenry 1810  to  1816. 

Amos  A.  Williams 1813  to  1822. 

Alexander  Fridge 1814  to  1839. 

Alexander  McDonald 1816  to  1836. 

James  Cox 1817  to  1841. 

Robert  Purviance 1818  to  1825. 

James  Calhoun,  Jr 1818  to  1822. 

Alexander  Nisbet 1819  to  1854. 

RoBERi  Smith 1822  to  1828. 

Robert  Gilmor,  Jr 1822  to  1849. 

John  Purviance 1822  to  1854. 


REYNOLDS  I23 

John  McHenry 1822 

Jonathan  Meredith 1822  to  1825. 

George  Brown 1825  to  185Q. 

RoswELL  L.  Colt 1828  to  1836, 

John  T.  Barr 1828  to  1832. 

Henry  Bird 1831  to  1832. 

James  Armstrong 1832  to  1830. 

James  Swann 1832  to  1854. 

Alexander  Murdoch 1843  to  1856,  1858  to  1879, 

James  Campbell 1835  to  1838. 

Francis  T.  Hyde 1S36  to  1855. 

Francis  Forman 1836  to  1854. 

Thomas  Finley 1838  to  1846. 

Archibald  Stirling 1839  to  1888. 

Christian  A.  Schaefer 1839  to  1847. 

Joseph  Taylor 1842  to  1864. 

J.  Spear  Smith 1844  to  1849. 

Stephen  Collins 1846  to  1858. 

William  Harrison 1849  to  1870. 

John  A.  Armstrong 1849  to  1870. 

Alexander  Titrnbull 1854  to  1859. 

J.  Morrison  Harris 1854  to  1898. 

WiLLiAAi  Buckler 1854  to  1870. 

Alexander  Winchester 1854  to  1859. 

James  I.  Fisher 1855  to  1858. 

Charles  Findlay 1858  to  1862,  1870  to  1876. 

Hamilton  Easter 1858  to  1895. 

George  S.  Brown 1859  to  1890. 

Sanuel  Mactier 1859  to  1872. 

Andrew  Reid i860  to  1896. 

Horatio  L.  Whitridge 1862  to  1873. 

Richard  D.  Fisher 1864  to  1910. 

Benjamin  Deford 1870 

George  W.  Andrews 1870  to  1877. 

Henry  James 1870  to  1873. 

George  Appold 1873  to  1897. 

Joseph  H.  Rieman 1873  to  1897. 

Julian  J.  Chisolm 1877  to  1898. 

John  V.  L.  Findlay 1877  to  1907. 

J.  Spear  Nicholas 1879  to  1882. 

Thomas  I.  Carey 1882  to  1894. 

James  R.  Clark 1882  to  1896. 

Albert  Fahnestock 1888  to 

Robert  M.  Wylie 1891  to  1902. 

John  McKim 1S94  to  1905, 

Francis  E.  Waters 1894  to  1895,  1907  to 

John  M.  Hood 1896  to  1906. 

Harry  F.  Reid 1896  to 

Oscar  F.  Bresee 1896  to  1902. 

Walter  S.  Franklin 1898  to  1911. 


124  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  BALTIMORE 

W.  Hall  Harris 1898  to 

Charles  E.  Rieman 1898  to 

Henry  M.  Hurd 1900  to 

Douglas  M.  Wylie 1902  to 

James  Carey 1904  to 

J.  H.  Mason  Knox 1904  to 

C.  Braxton  Dallam 1908  to 

Robert  A.  Fisher 1910  to 

William  W.  Spence,  Jr 1912  to 

SEXTONS. 
{Some  Nantes  Missing) 

Morris 1767  to  

William  Flahaven to  1772. 

Henry  Cain 1784  to  

Charles  Young 1805  to  1810. 

John  Hasselbaugh 181 1  to  1814. 

John  Spence 1826  to  1845. 

George  W.  Spence 1845  to  1873. 

John  B.  Spence 1873  to 


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■i!'.    I 


